


Improvisation not recommended (but required)

by Costumebleh



Series: Take it from the top (again) [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Current person ends up in video game, F/F, Fluff, Found-family while also having a real family, M/M, Memory Loss, Multi, Other, Politics, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn, Twin AU, Violence, semi-realistic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-01-25 01:28:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21348019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Costumebleh/pseuds/Costumebleh
Summary: Waking up to a world that is not yours, yet known to you, makes for a confusing and hard start in Andromeda.From Kett to companions, you have to balance the future with what can happen and what will happen in the hopes to see everything through to the end.But hey, at least you're not alone.
Relationships: Jaal Ama Darav/Male Ryder | Scott, Peebee/Female Ryder | Sara, Vetra Nyx/Reader, Vetra Nyx/Ryder
Series: Take it from the top (again) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1539490
Comments: 35
Kudos: 35





	1. Cold hands, warm touch (if you can feel)

**Author's Note:**

> Lovingly nicknamed "Lil Ryder" originally started a few years back, I finally find that I have enough work done on it to post it and hopefully keep it up!
> 
> Wish me luck!

Everything is sudden and overwhelming when waking up. 

Machinery and chatter clutters inside your head as everything else is trying to get up and running at the same pace. It’s noise, a lot of it, too much to handle, like a stubborn echo that rings inside your head with every sound. 

When you finally manage to open your eyes, it's a mishmash of blues and whites. You can feel yourself laying on a bed, soft cushioning keeping you from feeling any further discomfort as you try to force your mind to catch up to what’s happening.

Wait -

That doesn’t make any sense.

But as you try and rise from your horizontal position, vertigo makes your head spin, bile rising in your throat as your stomach rebels and you can’t help yourself from plopping right back down.

A gentle voice speaks from somewhere on your left, “Take it easy Ryder. There’s plenty of time to wake up.”

But despite their words, you still feel somebody’s hands grasping onto your shoulders, helping you upright yourself. You’d thank them, but all you can devote your attention to is to keep breathing and keeping calm and not panicking and not think about the unorganized mess that is your mind at the moment.

What is even going on. You could’ve sworn you were –

Your mind blanks as you think. Your eyes catching onto the outfit you are wearing.

Sleek white and blacks, red for accents and no feel of cotton or any other sort of familiar material. An emblazoned insignia is decorating the chest and looking at your hands you see gloves of the same material. 

It’s probably the one thing that really makes you freak out. It’s a little silly. But it is at this point that you freeze at the implications. That little taunting illustration decorating your clothes.

Your thoughts stutter, a moment too long apparently, because somebody slowly waves their hand in front of you to catch your attention. You finally manage to raise your gaze from your hands and up to see who is standing before you.

What you see makes your mind reel and you don’t know what to do other than try to reject the reality set before you.

An Asari. As in the species that you’ve seen before in a _ game_. She’s kneeling to check you out a little better, lifting a small lamp to test your eyes before noting something down on her datapad. 

_ A datapad. _

It’s by then that you have a general bad feeling about your circumstances.

“I’m doctor Lexi,” the Asari woman says, as she lifts one finger for your eyes to follow. “I’m working specifically under the doctor in charge of the Pathfinder family’s awakening. So don’t worry. Harrit isn’t far.” 

When your eyes seemingly don’t show any issues after a few minutes of you getting a good look around and as well with you squinting into the small flashlight from her omnitool, she smiles, “So, I do believe you would like to know that everyone else is already up and about, and the twins have asked about eight times if your prognosis could wait until their heartfelt reunion.” 

A mutter from behind her, a man hunched over another screen. “I’m sure they’ve passed twelve at this point.” 

Lexi straightens, typing a few more seemingly important things onto her pad before having you do some hand exercises; flexing your wrists. Testing the tendons and releasing the last crinkle of sleep in them, you do feel a little less stiff and more aware. 

Lexi at last makes you sit still, her hands professional against the tense muscles of your shins. “I’m afraid I had to ask your father to distract them. Just until I’ve managed to see if there’s any lasting damage from the cryostasis.”

Finally, Lexi, _ the Lexi that you know from somewhere that is not supposed to be real, _nods approvingly as she gestures for you to try and stand up from your bed for her. “I can assure you that everything seems to be in working order and that you will have plenty of energy to move around in just a few minutes.”

You’re still very confused, but you nod along anyway.

After that she mostly just asks you various questions about your physique, if there are any pains or lingering issues with moving. You answer truthfully, but that also includes you having to deal with her attention for a good while longer as you do have some pain while moving your legs. She makes you do a couple of stretches to even out the muscles and even pressing her fingers in against the muscle to see how tense they were. The motions makes your muscles scream but it does help drag out the deadness in them. 

Finally, though, you manage to stand on your own two - if slightly unsteady - feet.

Now to figure out what is even going on.

As far as you can see, you’re in a very familiar looking scenario to a certain _ video game, _ but as far as you know you’re not dreaming. The taste of bile in the back of your mouth and the discomfort from moving around is too overwhelming not to be real.

It’s so _ weird _, like, you could swear that you haven’t managed to hightail it into a fictional story as far as any of your memories go.

Wait, what did Doctor Lexi say? That the _ twins _ were waiting for you to wake up?

Holy hell, there are two of them, how is that even possible if you’re even going through the prologue of the game itself. There shouldn’t be any _ twins _ , that would break the routine right from the beginning. There should be a _ twin _, singular. Specifically, yours.

Not that you actually have one, but it’s the general consensus while playing this game that you’re one or the other. A set. 

Lexi starts prodding at the base of your spine and then finally just does the omni-tool scan that you know from the game. She even gives the whole spiel about checking out if your implant had suffered any damage from cryostasis at all. However, SAM does not appear as expected. This isn’t according to the playthrough at all.

Instead, her scans are only made on her omni-tool and she prompts you to straighten as she checks your legs again, making sure the muscle is completely untense. 

Finally, you manage to hold your balance for more than ten seconds, and that’s the point where she seems satisfied with your progression. “I’ll arrange for one of the others to let your siblings in. I’m sure you would like some coffee to wake up a little more.”

You shake your head to that, “No thanks, Doctor. I’m afraid I’m not a big fan of coffee.” Whereas she just nods absentmindedly at your reply. In the meantime, you’re trying to stretch muscles that lives up to the statement of sore.

Man, it really feels like you might’ve spent 600 years as an icicle.

The revelation isn’t lessening the confusion though. This was still very trippy and you are sure that if this – the prologue that led up to the whole story, was real, that you or the people around you have broken the roles of the stilted performance you know. And not just once, perhaps a good handful times now.

Holy –

Just as you muddle about that, the doors to the rest of the cryo bay open with a soft breath of air. Decisive quick steps move in your direction, though before you manage to see who’s there, you find yourself picked up by a pair of arms wrapping around your middle, lifting you up and off the floor to let you hang uselessly whilst your brain is failing to catch up.

“Looks like we’ve got yet another for the Ryder-collection Sara.” You _ know _ that voice. But with it being less pre-recorded, in truth, it sounds a little foreign when compared to the one you ’ ve heard repeatedly in the game. More _ real _.

And as you look over your shoulder, you find yourself considering the eyes of the bloody _ Scott Ryder _.

Before you manage to even react to it, less even think about it. You feel yet another pair of arms wrap around your middle, a mouthful of hair as a hello, and a very excited – _Sara Ryder holy shit, _is leaning in to join the apparent unannounced group hug.

As you hear them both talk at you, but your mind is sort of stuck in a repeating loop of; _ What the shit is going on? _

Because, even as you know that they theoretically both are present and living in the game, they aren’t both awake in either timeline before the hit with the scourge. And – since they are both awake and conscious way before you, the timeline doesn’t match up at all.

The hell is going on? What are you then?

But you don’t manage to mull too much about it, as you are still getting squeezed by a very strong pair of siblings with semi-official N7 training. Even a pathetic little squeak is pressed out of you when the last air leaves your lungs and you can feel yourself seize up in discomfort.

That’s when a gloved hand pushes in between you and the twin holding you above ground, gaining their attention as Alec Ryder saves you from your up and coming doom caused my sibling love.

“That is quite enough, both of you. You’ll put them down and try to actually act like the two soldiers you’ve been trained to be.” Finally, you’re released.

Though, as you’re set down, you feel yourself keel over a little from lack of air and weakened muscles. Alec reacts quickly however, putting a hand on your shoulder to help steady yourself.

It’s so weird, everything is so weird. But when you look at one of the creators of the Andromeda project, you don’t feel like you’re looking at a stranger. Instead, you feel relieved with his presence here.

Almost like he’s familiar.

Ok, not just weird, that’s downright strange.

It’s while you’re staring awestruck at Alec when you hear the thundering _ thumb _ and _ crack _ of the Hyperion hitting the Scourge – they don’t know the name of it yet, do they? – and you find yourself lifted from the floor.

Whoa, zero gravity. Okay, that’s kind of cool. You’ve dreamt of trying something like it, but this. _ This _ is something completely different from what you’d expected. You feel more unbound than floating. It kind of gives you an idea of why Peebee was so happy with doing it in the game.

But, with the rest of the family floating around you, you know that there should be some way to repair the artificial gravity.

As you mull about remembering how you would do that, Cora Harper floats into the room and you suddenly recall how; as she turns it back on just in time for you to smack gracelessly onto the floor, any reactions forgotten as you collide with the hard metallic surface.

“Urgh.” You groan, all pain and no will. Absolutely not feeling up to exercising the amount of energy it demands of you to get back onto your feet. Just let you lay here please, the floor is nice and cool and you don’t have to face the reality of Andromeda. 

You’re sadly not left to take a nap on the floor, as a pair of arms hoist you back onto your feet without flourish. “Wow, you’re a lot lighter than I remember.” Surprise, it’s Sara behind you. “You really need to eat some more spacegoop lil’ sib.”

“I’m perfectly healthy Sara,” you remark as you lean onto a nearby console, “Doctor Lexi reassured me of that.”

“Psh, yeah, sure.” She waves dismissively at your retort, as to whack it out of the air.

That’s when you see the very same doctor approach the four of you, followed by a stern-looking Cora Harper. “I can assure you that my knowledge of human physiology is just as extensive as any other doctor of your own race.”

Sara looks just about to bark out another comment, but is cut short by Harper. “We don’t have time for this kind of argument Ryder.”

And as she turns to Alec, you notice that she looks worried. 

Well maybe you’re not the best judge of this. But you get the feeling that she already knows that something is wrong.

Well the cue would’ve been the Hyperion hitting the scourge and the whole system seemingly shutting down out of nowhere. Nevertheless, all of them shouldn’t know the details about that little titbit yet. 

Actually, Alec shouldn’t even be here right now. He should be on the deck arguing with the captain and assessing the situation. Instead, he’s here, in the cryobay, with a pair of fully-conscious twins, and apparently, checking up on you? What is this, where is the cold and inattentive father-figure you know from the game? 

But wait, that means you’re about to reach Habitat 7.

You look at Alec, struck by clarity considering recent reality-check necessity and the background knowledge you have of what is to come. Something flickers in the back of your mind as you backtrack through the storyline.

That means that one of the initiatives greatest hopes is going to die.

And you can stop it.

You put a hand over your eyes, shutting them as that thought brings both an aching despair and a desperate hope spiralling in your chest. It’s unexpected and overwhelming and you’ve got no clue as to why you’re on the verge of tears. 

Why do you suddenly feel dizzy?

Your world tilts, legs feeling weak and you’re about to stumble over the edge of one of the medbay beds. It’s only for the quick reflexes of Alec that you’re stopped from keeling over. 

His grip is steady on your shoulder, keeping you up and standing even as you find “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” you mutter, trying futilely to think of a way to convey the dire situation to everyone without being called a down-right lunatic. “I’m just feeling the 600 years spent sleeping.”

He kind of awkwardly pats your shoulder as he helps you steady yourself. “Well, time to freshen up, seems like something hit the Hyperion.”

This sense of him attempting to act the father figure doesn’t help dispel your sudden nausea, but it does lessen the worry you feel at thinking about this large break off from the story. 

Maybe, just maybe, you can put a stop to his death.

Sara and Scott go onwards further into the ship as the others start talking about information and theories, leaving you behind to catch up. 

However, Alec walks by your side, a hand resting on your back as support.

“I’m glad to see all three of you awake.” He comments, as you notice the rest of the landing-crew getting their last checks finished. You give a few smiles to them, fearing for their upcoming safety. 

“It’s good to be here, finally.” You reply, attention split between the conversation and waving at Liam as he gives you a cheeky smile.

That’s two of them down. Alas, Cora is nowhere to be seen anymore, she must’ve gone to the helm. 

When you and Alec pass by the stairs leading to the tram. A small explosion sounds, knocking you both back and you curse inwardly at your forgetfulness. 

_ This is the prologue, you should 'v_ _e expected that. _

But before anybody even manages to do much more than yell for help, Alec is there, scanner out and ready as he easily spots the defunct part of the engine. A few brisk commands later and the circuitry is rewired to lessen the chance of further combustion.

You haven’t even managed to do much more than stand up and watch, flabbergasted at the efficiency.

“He’s an experienced soldier, of course this would be nothing to him.” You mutter under your breath. Unsure of how to receive Alec as he returns, you just smile at him.

“Nice job – dad.” You stutter between the words, It’s so unusual to say that, but it makes his eyes light up, so you guess it’s worth the stammering and uncertainty.

The ride on the tram is not any less awkward, as it takes a lot more time than you’d come to expect and you don’t really know why you didn’t think of that, because even when the Hyperion isn’t connected to the Nexus you know that the ship is _ huge _ and two minutes twiddling your thumb is not really realistic in the long run.

And again, as you try to think about the future – something overlaps. Your thoughts garbled and knots together; as the dizziness returns. This time however, you manage to keep yourself stationary as you sit on the plush seating of the tram.

Fighting back the nausea without giving it away drains all your attention.

Just before you’re to arrive at the bridge. Alec speaks, his voice was monotone and grave as he apparently muses without thinking much of it being vocalized.

“I hope it’s nothing serious, all this way, for something to happen would be catastrophic.” Though as you shoot him a worried look, it seems that those thoughts were not supposed to have been spoken out loud. “I’m sorry, I just worry for this sudden impact to the Hyperion.”

“I know.” It’s not much in the form of comfort, especially with the grave news you all are about to receive, but it’s the better alternative than giving a false sense of hope.

He sighs as the tram finally reaches its destination, revealing the corridor leading up and further to the front of the giant ship. Neither of you speak as he takes the same position as before, slightly behind and to your right. A hand on your back is keeping tabs on you and helping you regain your momentum as you step further ahead.

When you finally reach the hull, there’s already an argument going on. However, this time it’s not between Captain Dunn and Alec, but rather, between the twins and the disgruntled captain.

As you both see this, Alec goes ahead and addresses the crowd. “What is the status of the Hyperion?”

He’s not looking at anybody, nor speaking very loudly, but a hush blows over the deck as everyone turns their attention to the human Pathfinder.

It’s Captain Dunn that speaks first. “The Hyperion seems to have hit some sort of energy cloud just above Habitat 7. Some parts of the ship are still taking heavy damage from the contact and it seems that we’re unable to break free at the moment.”

“An energy cloud?” Alec questions as he briskly walks up to take a closer look at the star map. “There should be no such thing here, all the star charts from when we left told us that these planets were habitable and without any underlying issues.”

“Well,” the captain clears her throat as she steps up to point at the maps. “There is too much interference from the radiation and spikes in scanners to tell accurately where it came from, but it seems that we’re stuck.”

“A correction, Pathfinder.” Another familiar-but-shouldn’t-be voice comes from above. “By tracing the patterns in the cloud from the ships scanners, it seems to originate from Habitat 7.”

It’s SAM, he’s here.

You don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. You know that technically even you have an implant that he can use to talk to you with, but it just feels a little more surreal at the appearance of the AI.

“It seems we have a destination then,” Alec straightens from the map, giving everybody a look-over as he seems to wield an aura of authority, taking the time to look each of you in the eye.

Nevertheless, it at the very least appears that some patterns from the game must be upheld. Because, as he speaks, Captain Dunn cuts in and addresses the other side of our situation. “I would rather that we didn’t attempt to land, perhaps the other arks have made it through without trouble and could come and retrieve us. There is no need to risk the life of our Pathfinder if we can prevent it -.”

Ah yes, the other arks.

_ It sure would be nice if they could rescue us, wouldn'__ t__ it? _You think bitterly as a ball of silent despair starts to curdle in your chest. They’re even worse off than the Hyperion, yet it seems like this might not be discovered for weeks, maybe even months.

While your thought spiral about the information about your situation, others have taken to the same discussion that you almost know by heart. Alec arguing for attempting to touch ground and check out the planet from there on, also known as; Braving the risks and make the human ark take action, and Dunn arguing about risking the safety of the only hope for humanity if they were truly stranded.

Either way, you know the turnout.

Just as the argument is about to reach its peak, you notice that Cora is standing off to one side, leaning against a wall while listening to the pair. You don’t manage to make eye-contact, but you’re glad to see her again. At the very least there one familiar face around.

Finally, Alec addresses the three of you with the question about your opinions. Whereas it seems that the other two share the same sentiment as you – you need to go to Habitat 7 to see how it is and if there’s anything that can be changed on that front.

When dismissed, you just barely turn to catch an excited shout from Sara as the twins practically leap at the chance to get armed up. But with them gone, you’re at a slight loss as to where to go. Alec is up and still talking to Dunn and you don’t yet seem to be fully set up with SAM

To your immense luck it’s Cora that becomes your saviour, as she gestures for you to follow her with a wave of her hand as she sets off at a leisure pace.

“I’m afraid we didn’t manage to get properly introduced back there – I’m Cora Harper, the second in command of your father.” She seems nice enough, despite this seeming to be your first meeting.

“It’s nice to meet you,” You say, unsure about if chatting too much with Cora before the pathfinder’s untimely death is that great of an idea. 

“Are those two always so?” She gestures vaguely at the argumentative twins, seemingly at a loss for words.

She cut herself off before she could say anything offensive or possibly weird, but you get the gist of it as you make your way to the locker-room. “It seems so yeah.”

You don’t really want to relay something that could later be proved to be untrue, so you try and keep your answers as vague as possible about a variety of topics that Cora seemingly seems fit to talk about.

It’s a little odd to try and sound confident about your abilities as a fighter – when you’re even unsure about them yourself. It’s not like you’ve had any real weapons-training before coming here, but you also feel like you might get a surprise, since nothing about your situation so far has made any sense.

In the lockers, Sara and Scott are already suited up together with the rest of the ground-team. You don’t remember most of the names of the people here, but you try and make nice with most of them as you prepare yourself with various nick-knacks.

What really comes as a surprise – though you’re good at hiding it, you hope – is that beside from the standard pistol from the game, you also pick up what seems to be a rather decent quality sniper rifle.

God, you knew how to use this? What kind of work had you been doing before this?

Impressions settle in your mind as your hands familiarly grasp the tool with rapt attention to any damage it might’ve suffered during your long stasis. A ghost sensation of how to make it lie against your shoulder to get an even shot, how to optimize and zoom with your scope. It all gathers together and you feel a little light-headed as you finally place it on your back.

Sure, you’d liked to snipe when playing the game, but these memories of using the rifle – of pulling the trigger. There’s something more, nagging at the back of your mind.

Though you don’t have much of a chance to think about it further, as Scott comes over to drag you to the hangar bay, where the shuttles are waiting. You sputter a little at the handling, though it’s apparently somewhat of a norm because he keeps bringing up ‘the past’ about similar experiences, nothing you can recall at all.

It’s more than a little unnerving. Even more so when you’re assigned to be on the shuttle without any of the others. You’d at the very least hoped that you would be put together with Scott or Sara. But no, they were going to the forward site and your group will be scouting.

However, you also know that they won’t be making it to the forward site. You know that you’re about to almost die falling several hundred meters – oh god.

There’s no time to think too heavily about it, because the shuttle is entering the atmosphere and you’re getting re-introduced to Liam just a few moments before the shuttle caves in on itself.

“I’m Liam, Liam Kosta. I’m honoured to be a part of the Pathfinder’s team.”

You can’t help but smile at his positive attitude, despite your own nerves. “It’s nice to meet you Liam, though I wish our circumstance could’ve been better.”

“Yeah, landing down on an unknown world is a really great conversation starter for sure.” You can’t see it because of the helmet, but you swear he’s grinning. “It’s all new right? Of course we’re not expecting it to be without a few bumps.”

“You’re probably right,” You remark as you anxiously listen to the pilot starting to panic about lack of control and radiation messing with their scanners.

And eventually, the expected happens.

The cabin caves in on itself, windy claws digging into you as you hang onto any available handholds.


	2. Hard landing (litterally)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eos is... Not a welcoming planet in the least and you do your best to keep yourself (and others) alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a delay! my bad! but here's the chapter so I hope you like it! :3

The air loss would’ve been the death of you if not for your suit, but then you see Liam getting dragged off by the pressure of the cabin bending in on itself; the change in atmosphere launching him straight out the side of the shuttle. 

You try desperately to reach out and clamp onto his hand, the other hanging onto the destroyed door, metal digging into your palm. You can feel the strain over your shoulder, trying to keep both of you in the shuttle.

“Hold on!” you yell, pulse heavy and persistent in your ears. You’re terrified. Terrified of everything that is about to unfold and terrified of the prospect of ending up in this hellhole without Liam. Terrified beyond measure that you’d fuck something up and somebody will get killed. 

But something makes the shuttle shudder so heavily, it takes another chunk out of the side – and you with it.

Those next twenty seconds proved to be some of the worst in your life. The whooshing of air passing by and the quickly approaching surface of Habitat 7 seemed frightening, your flailing limbs doing little to assist you. 

You hadn’t really talked to SAM yet, but as you fall, you hear his voice in the speakers of your helmet. 

“_Your rear jets have been damaged, any contact with the ground without them will prove deadly. _”

“Well that’s just great,” you mutter as a few of those floating rocks pass on your sides and you get the feeling that you should probably gain some opposite momentum soon. “Get them working!”

“_Very well, Ryder _.” Comes the neutral response, and for a few tense seconds, the silence promises a certain death as the ground moves nearer and nearer. 

Finally, blessedly before you collide with an menacing-looking pillar, you can feel the wheezing of your jump-jets turning back on and the following jolt cracking up your spine. It’s painful, suddenly rivaling the G-force dragging you down and it’s only with yet another release of firepower that you manage to push yourself away from the collision with a large outcropping. Undoubtedly it would have been your last touch with earth before your demise.

Instead, you just take a harsh tumble down the side of the thing. Tucking your arms around your head, as you try and lessen the impact to your skull and still keep your limbs intact. It’s rather undignified, but whatever, it keeps you alive. 

Somewhat at least. 

Alas, as it would’ve proved further that you were the protagonist, your helmet is cracked. A desperate wheeze and shudder goes through your body as it burns down your throat and makes your lungs constrict painfully.

It hurts, oh god it hurts! Your limbs spasm and you swear you can feel your heart skip an uneven beat from the lack of oxygen and the torture the atmosphere is to your body. 

With eyes blinded by pain and lack of air, some unknown muscle memory guiding you, you manage to turn on the heat-lighter on the omni-too. Successfully fixing the cracks by melting the glass together and letting you breathe freely again with a wheezing cough.

You’re still pathetically laying on the ground, taking in heavy gulps of air when Liam finds you. 

He’s careful while helping you stand up a hand on your back, letting you put your weight against him as you still wheeze pathetically, and he talks as he works on keeping you vertical whilst you regain your footing.

“Seems like all coms are down. Whatever is messing up the atmosphere is cutting off our communications, not even SAM can reach us.”

“That’s bad.” You comment when you finally find the air to fill out your lungs. “We’ll be on our own then.”

“Yeah,” His hand gesturing to the surroundings, like it still all seemed unreal to him, “It’s all kinds of messed up out there. But we should try and see what happened to the shuttle. Maybe we can still get back, even if it doesn’t seem like the paradise we were promised.”

“Sounds good,” you muster in reply, looking about at the absolute carnage that is Habitat 7, “Maybe some of the others made it.” You know they did – or maybe they didn’t. Stuff has changed and already veered off the course that you know. Anything could happen at this point.

“Sure hope so.” And with that, you both start moving.

There’s only one path forward, everywhere else seems to leer either with a fall to certain death or looking particularly menacing with how rough the lightning is. Lucky probably doesn’t even start to cover the circumstances you’ve ended up in.

“Oh,” you mention as an off comment as you notice the broken communications-relay nearby. No way of fixing that. “Don’t breathe the air. Talking from experience.”

“Duly noted,” Liam replies as he seems to examine the odd form of plantlife nearby, “What are these things?” He adds as he reaches out to touch one of those odd coily-things and it responds by curling in on itself, as if fearing a blowback.

“No idea. But it seems like almost everything here is dead because of the atmosphere and lightning.” It technically is true, but _ that _ was caused by the remnant beacon on the planet. Nothing you really should know anything about, so you bite your tongue.

It’s not as leisure stroll as the game makes it out to be, there’s floating rocks and lightning to figure out paths to avoid and when the two of you finally reach the uncovered part of your journey to the others, you note that the lightning looks plain vicious.

“That’s not good,” Liam remarks as you both stare at the heavily abused part of the road ahead.

“Nope,” You concur.

“No other paths around?”

“None,”

“So we gotta charge through it?”

“Seems like it,” and you really wish you could take the time to reconsider this, but you’re moving before you let yourself doubt.

Moving through the heavily charged field is nothing like it was made to be in the story. Here, there’s arcs of electricity moving through the air and bounding off your shields as you can feel your heartbeat speed up at the mere proximity. Not to mention when a lightning strike hits close to you. One is close enough to knock you off your feet and you topple over terrifyingly close to the edge of the drop.

“Here, grab on!” Liam is quick to react however, and has an arm around you in seconds as he helps you back up.

The rest of the run you feel a slight limp, probably from the charge you took to the side. Nevertheless, with Liam supporting you, you both make it to the other end without further incident.

It takes you a moment to regain your breath and slow your heart rate enough to exclaim; “Well, that was terrifying.”

“No kidding.” Liam grunts out, taking a minute to survey the path ahead. “At least it looks to be under cover for a good while, I see tunnels ahead.”

“Oh perfect.” You reply, rising as if you were sixty years older and feeling the arthritis in your bones. But no, it was just the pain from you taking a lightning bolt to your ass. “Let’s keep going then.”

“Roger that, but do you need a minute Ryder?” Liam asks worriedly as he notices that you’ve got a nasty burn down your left side. Shields or no shield, lightning is a bitch when everything is electronic.

“I’m good,” You muster as you pull out your scanner at some of those mushrooms growing under the cover. “I’d kinda hoped that these would contain maybe something useful, like provisions. But it seems like they’re barely made of anything.”

“Doesn’t explain why they glow.”

“Radiation?”

“Maybe,” He hesitantly agrees. “Don’t know a whole lot of biology. Not really my expertise.”

That makes you perk your ears, “What did you work with? Don’t think I heard it in the introductions on the Hyperion, kinda busy with everything happening.”

“Oh, I was special ops, nothing big and shiny. Fetch others out of bad situations kind of became my thing. What about you?”

You hum at that, trying to wrack your brain for an answer. It’s when you’re just about to tell him that you just dabbled in some alliance recon that your mouth replies with; “I was about to be dragged into covert ops, right before my dad came and got me to come with him to Adromeda.”

“Harsh, must’ve had some skills to be qualified for covert.”

You shrug as casually as you can at that, but inside you’re freaking out because you actually don’t know where the words came from and why you suddenly feel like you might’ve been more than just dropped into the story.

What could that mean?

Well, to figure out maybe after you’ve met up with the others. You manage to take a few steps without your thigh screaming in agony, so maybe you’re good.

Leaving Liam without a specific answer, you gesture for him to continue. “Let’s try and find the others.”

He stares worriedly at you for a moment before shrugging and jogging in front of you to survey the rocks ahead. “Sure thing. Looks manageable with the jump jets.”

And with that, either of you are too busy trying not to fall to your doom that the next while is blessedly silent as you permit yourself to churn around the info you know about this next bit. Kett were going to be surrounding the guy with the broken leg – Fisher? You think?

Just as you mull about that, Liam helps you over the edge of one last wall and you can see the Kett.

What you can see further is that they’re not strolling around leisurely and turning things around without noticing anything. The moment you’re over and within sight, you’re the lucky recipient of a volley of bullets.

Liam falls down beside you, both covered by an outcropping in the cave walls as he pulls out his gun yelling good-naturedly. “What was code on first alien encounters again?”

“No shooting unless confronted!” You yell back over the sound of guns going off, “Did you see anybody down there?”

“Yeah!” Liam nods, leaning out once to take a shot, “Seems like one of ours, seems like there’s only one though.”

“One’s better than none.” You mutter, fumbling to ready your hand-gun and not trusting yourself with the sniper rifle just yet despite how natural it’d felt in your hands earlier. “It seems like they’re not up for talking, let’s take them down and see what survivors we’re dealing with!” it’s pure bravado, ordering to kill the kett when you’ve never killed before and god this is horrible but they’re going to kill Fisher and you need as many to survive as possible - 

“Sounds good!” Liam exclaims, leaning out to throw something – a grenade, you realize a moment before it goes off. “There’s only a few of them, no need to waste more ammo than necessary.”

“Aren’t grenades ammo too?” you question as you take a peek over the top of your cover, only to receive a bullet grazing your shields a bit too close for comfort.

“Details,” He replies good-naturedly, “Seems like they won’t let us get any good shots in, stay down for now.”

You agree, but you still feel uneasy in the minutes passing as you can’t shake that you’ve overseen something about it all – maybe not in this very moment, but sometime soon, something bad happens.

_ Shit! _ Kirkland! He’s about to be killed, and if you wait for Fisher’s explanation he’ll be toast!

But you can’t just rush off, Liam is the only competent fighter right now and if you suddenly start running in the middle of things, it might just be Fisher that they kill instead.

Ok, you’ll just have to hurry once the fight’s over. If you say you heard something to the east, then maybe you’ll get there before they shoot him.

As you’re plotting out what you’re going to do, the firefight slowly wears down. Finally, there’s no able-bodied kett remaining and Liam gestures for an ‘all clear’ to Fisher as he steps down. 

The two of you walk over to Fisher, with Liam kneeling down by him to see how bad the leg is. The answer is short: pretty damn bad.

And it’s then you decide to act, making a scene of tensing, and turning to the opening of the cave. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” Liam questions as his attention refocuses on you, and it’s with a lot of frayed nerves you try to portray a somewhat competent fighter. It’s not easy.

“Sounds like gunfire,” you answer as you quickly turn to Fisher, “Can you handle yourself here? It might be one of the others.”

“Yeah,” Fisher replies, shifting his leg with a grimace. “Those bastards won’t get the jump on me again, now I know how to take care of them.”

You smile at that, glad that he’s still got a good amount of fighting spirit left, despite the circumstances. “Good to hear, let’s go Liam.”

“Right where you are.” Liam salutes at your command.

It’s nerve-wracking to make your way to the opening of the cave and down the worn path. It’s a good fifty-fifty percentage that you’ll be able to take down the Kett with the gun pointed at Kirkland, but you’ll have to risk it.

And you don’t manage to think much more than that, as you hear the unfamiliar speech of the kett and the protocol responses from Kirkland. When you pass the crest overlooking the little valley holding the remnant doorway and a handful of aggressive aliens.

You’re just about to contemplate how to go about this, when you feel it again.

A harsh ringing goes through your head, bringing you on the verge of passing out. Your body not responding as Liam yells out something from behind you -

A single gunshot rings through the air, the Kett Chosen falling backwards and letting Kirkland breathe yet another day.

But as you manage to refocus on what’s happening, you notice the shot isn’t taken by Liam. It’s you, standing with the sniper rifle in your hands and raised so you could look through the scope.

That’s impossible!

You almost drop the gun right there and then, but there’s still an odd clarity ringing through your mind whilst you’re in the middle of your panicked internal monologue.

With an assuring motion; a slow shake of your head as if to chase away your confusion. Your eye lines up to take yet another shot at the group, peeling off yet another life from this plane – a twisted and poor life, but it’s after that you really manage to regain control over your body.

Liam – bless the man – is quicker than you in the seconds that happens after, as the Kett finally spot you standing above and opens fire. He grabs your arm to drag you back behind cover. “I don’t know if that was amazing or plain dangerous Ryder.” He remarks good-naturedly. “But it seems to have saved Kirkland’s hide, so I’ll go with amazing.”

You’re in the middle of reeling back from whatever the hell that was to do much more than holster the rifle onto your back, a muttered reply of; “Yeah, sure.” In response as you’re finding yourself panicking and hands too shaky to wield a gun without risking to hit Kirkland.

Luckily, both Liam and Kirkland work together to clear out the remaining kett. Which leaves you with plenty of time to ease your adrenaline down to a more manageable level and deal with the afterthought of ‘what the fuck just happened’.

You’re doing great. Just peachy. You lie to yourself, as you move out of cover to have a look at the scene.

All the Kett are down once again, and there’s a very worn Kirkland standing amid the carnage.

Making your way down, you look for any movement from the bodies lying spread out here and there. Fortunately, they all look to be dead.

Turning your attention to Kirkland, the first words out of your mouth is; “Why the hell did you leave an injured man alone at a burning shuttle?!”

Foot, meet mouth. He’s probably a lot more experienced on the field that you, why are you scolding him for this?

Oh, maybe because if you hadn’t sped everything up, he would’ve been dead!

Yes, maybe that’s why.

He does have the decency to look guilty, but to his credit he quickly straightens and looks you in the eye without hesitating. “With the way the shuttle looked, we had to make sure that us able to move could at least secure help.”

“True,” you agree, looking around at all the dead bodies, “And how did that go? For as far as I know soldier, we don’t go scouting in unknown territory alone.”

You don’t really know the true protocol, but sending a man out alone in this hellhole for sure wasn’t it. And as you see him shrink under your glare, you’ll bet that he also knows it.

However, “You’ll be going back to Fisher and help him get back on his feet, I will return with news regardless.”

“Yessir.” Kirkland responds, probably also just wishing to be away from this whole situation. He ducks his head as he moves back the way you came.

As he’s out of sight, you sigh heavily and sit down on one of the rocks littering the scene. Liam, the godsend man, doesn’t comment on your sudden attitude towards the other member of the team and instead just clasps your shoulder as he looks around for any path forward whilst you take a moment to reflect.

You’ve managed to save Kirkland – that’s already a lot better than what you’ve been hoping for since this whole shit-show started. But your sudden blackout and unexpected ability to kill stuff is a big surprise, and with everything happening, surprises are one of the last things you need.

“Keep to protocol,” you mumble as you press your hands over your mouth, it both sounds like something vaguely military if Liam hears it and you’re pretty sure the stress isn’t too mentionable if he managed to catch it. However, the sentence meant to keep you on track whilst you’re dealing with this on your own.

Protocol being the whole linear storyline of this damned universe.

That you maybe should try and stick to.

Even though you’ve already derailed.

Fuck.

You take in a deep breath, raising yourself back up onto your feet and holstering the rifle back onto your back without flourish. You know there’s another in trouble, though you hope that your intervention hasn’t worsened his chances.

But as you move forward, you see that there’s a weird beast flying overhead. Too fast for you to catch on your scanner, you remember the cave nearby. Maybe scanning the flora will help later, but there’s still Geer getting interrogated by the Kett.

Could you have the time to backtrack to the cave afterwards?

Debating for a moment, you decide Geer is more important and set off at a hurried trot.

It’s when you see the crashed alien ship., that you start hearing a rhythmical code being tapped into your channel and you feel the panic start rising and fear curdle your stomach. As you pass, you quickly take a scan of the ship before continuing. You don’t have the time to be further side-tracked.

You manage to make it to the cave without any further issue, and there he is, still alive. Geer.

He’s still held at gunpoint though.

Which might make things a tiny bit more complex.

But you just very quietly speak into the mic of your suit on the same channel Geer used to tap out the signal. “I need you to be quick Geer. We’re two at the entrance of the cave but you’re between us and a clean shot at the aliens. I need you to roll out of the way as we shoot in five seconds.”

You tap the countdown out on your channel, and rise above your cover to see that he’s listened to your words and is rolling to the side. Baring the aliens to the two of you, you both manage to take a free shot before they even register it.

Liam’s is clean, right through the chest. But your own only manages to glance off the weird skeletal carapace of the Kett, not dealing any true damage and you can swear that Liam is shooting you an odd look.

However, your ordeal is not prolonged, as Geer lunges forward with his omni blade out. Piercing through the gut of the Kett without further tally, before he takes a step back to survey the scene.

“Well, I’m glad someone heard me.” He says, stepping back to look at the two of you, “Any minute longer and I might’ve not been standing here.”

You’re rising from cover as he says this. Holstering your gun and brushing some imaginary dirt off your gear as to avoid meeting Liam’s gaze.

In the end, you can’t get your tongue to function, and it’s Liam that ends up saying; “We’re glad we could make it man. But next time try not to go out on your own? That was a pretty narrow escape.”

Geer rubs as his neck, “Yeah, I understand what you’re saying. We didn’t really expect there to be hostile aliens here.”

“Just be better next time,” Liam encourages, giving Geer a slap on the back as they both make their way over to you.

“Ryder – right?” Geer asks.

“Yeah,” You reply, not really wanting to chat up yet another probably-a-lot-more-experienced-than-you veteran, who you may and may not chew out over his bad choice in actions. 

You already feel plenty worn out. Thanks.

So, instead of letting him continue talking, you just turn around to walk back out of the small cave. “We need to get a move on, maybe the other shuttle did better with landing than ours.”

“You should go back to Kirkland and Fisher,” Liam adds to Geer, “See if they need help, we’ll keep going.”

“Roger,” Geer retorts and starts making his way back the way you came. You look a little wistfully in his direction, contemplating going back to check out the cave or even if you should try to do any of the side-missions here.

Maybe not. Time is of the essence and you doubt you’ll be able to pull off anything amazing like before. Better not risk the extra encounters and instead try and reach the others before anything else happens.

Before you manage to solve your inner debate, Liam clasps a hand on your shoulder. “Let’s just keep going yeah? If we all made it, then your dad and the others should’ve without a problem.”

Oh, he’s trying to comfort you, taking your hesitation as fear or worry. It’s sweet, but you’re sadly mulling over a completely other issue at hand. “Thank you, Liam, I hope so too.”

“Only one way to find out, right?” He prompts.

“Right,” You agree.

No time like the present.

And just as you exit the cave and see three blazing red lights illuminate the skies.

Hope is still here.


	3. Lets take this, and move it over here (not willingly)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some consequences will be starting to appear! Let's see how it goes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> annnnd I'm back to the monthly releases, had a rough run of it with exams and such but I'll be trying to time it somewhat around this time of the month!

Beside you, Liam physically exclaims in joy. Letting out a whoop and when you gaze over to look at him, his eyes are alight with hope.

He even goes as far as smacking your shoulder in a friendly fashion. “Bet you’d lost all hope.” He grins at you.

“Never for a second,” you reply, taking a minute to survey the direction they were shot from. Yeah, that looks like the same as in the game. Maybe you’ll be able to prevent further lost time by cutting through.

“This way,” you say as you leap ahead with a boost of your jetpack. Un-holstering your gun, you keep it in your one hand as you use the other for leverage to proceed forward in the uneven terrain.

It takes a while, but luckily the path over the abandoned remnant technology is free of enemies and you’re careful to dodge past the remaining few scouts you run into on your way forward.

But you find teeth bite into your shin. You forgot the invisible beasts.

Great, you think as you’re dragged backwards off balance. It’s not that bad because you’re armoured, so the teeth are only putting some mildly unpleasant pressure on your leg. However, getting dragged against ragged rocks covered in acidic rain is a bit of a bigger issue as you can’t seem to get a clear aim at it.

“Damnit!” you curse, trying to free your leg from your semi-invisible enemy. It’s twitchy though, so you can’t really get a good shot in. However, after a few seconds of stubborn struggle, you manage to get a shot in that grazes the thing, making it shed its cloaking.

The moment it’s visible you yell at Liam, “Take the shot!”

And only after a momentary hesitation, he apparently does. Because the next moment you have a beast with the weight of a boulder on top of you, completely dead.

You wheeze for a few seconds under the pressure before you manage to squeeze out; “A little hand here?” 

“Sure,” Liam says, crouching down by your side and assisting you with getting the beast off you. Even he seems to have some trouble moving it though, so it’s with a lot of huffing and puffing that you finally manage to get back out from under it.

You look down at the thing, “That,” you remark, checking over the cover of your leg, “was surprising.”

“What was that?” Liam asks, giving it a nudge with his boot, “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Pulling out your scanner, you take a second to process the information. “It seems like it’s organic.”

“What, like that cloaking-thing was something it can just do?” Liam sounds disturbed, you guess it’s founded, considering the circumstances. “And that armour, is that bone?”

“Think so,” you reply, trying to recall the facts surrounding this conversation. “It looks like they developed it to survive.”

Liam visibly shudders at your remark, “Andromeda is looking really cozy so far.”

“Can’t say you’re wrong,” you agree. That you’re already also forgetting details is a bad, super bad and very bad thing.

Not that disappearing monster-dogs is usually something that’s easy to see. Or will be easy to predict. You can even swear that the monster was supposed to appear earlier than that.

Oh, well, you’ve also been hurrying things along, so a few things might be out of order.

You take one more look at the body of the beast, shuddering at the thought of what those teeth might have damaged if you weren’t wearing armour.

Liam makes a thoughtful sound as you both take one last look at the carcass before moving on. The others shouldn’t be too far off at this point. The ship passes by on your left and you just remember scanning it on your omni-tool before you hear a tell-tale sound of gunfire and a broken curse over the comm in your helmet.

“We can’t last long like this. Ryder should be back soon.” Ah. So, dad did leave the station all to itself. Seems like things are playing out like they should. Dog mishaps aside.

Activating your mic, you quickly send back a quick; “We’re here Cora, what’s the status?” As you move forward, closer to sprinting now that you know that you’re moving in on another future teammate.

“Ryder?!” She sounds surprised. Well you guess that your survival was close to nil percentage all-in-all.

“Yep,” you chirp back, stepping forward into her line of sight. Better not startle her. “Have you met our resident aliens?”

“Don’t think they belong here, no,” Cora replies. “But if you’re talking about the ones that seems to be made of bone and little else, I can confirm.”

“Wonderful,” you mutter, and then finally reach her side. “Do we know where my dad is? Or Sarah and Scott?”

“They all went out to scout out the perimeter,” Cora says, pressing a hand to her temple as if to stave off a headache. “All thought it would be wiser to split us in two even groups, with me staying here as we repair the shuttle.”

You are just about to try and ask in to where they might’ve gone, but your voice instead strains as you see a semi-familiar ship appearing overhead. “Great.”

Liam, who’s been uncharacteristically quiet until then, finally pipes up. “Could be worse. Could be lightning striking here.”

“Liam, please.” You say, grabbing your rifle from your back. It seems like it might be wiser to keep a longer range, especially with the big guy that’ll drop down any second now. “I know that we’ve gone through a lot of bad stuff until now. But is taunting our chances really what you want to be doing right now?”

“Never hurts to see what might pop up, Ryder. Keeps you on your toes in my opinion.”

You resist giving him a shove. “If I drop out by getting struck by lightning, you can bet your behind I know just who to haunt afterwards.”

He grins at that. Cheeky bastard.

And then it starts. Liam’s hurling a grenade with a calculated accuracy that you can’t help but admire, just as you set up above the damaged shuttle. It explodes enough to make the Kett leap for cover, and it also gives you enough time to settle.

The rifle feels heavy in your hands. The scope awkward, and your position uncomfortable.

You have no fucking clue what to do with this thing.

But just as you think that. Your hands steady, your grip shifting and your shoulders moving to settle the rifle _ just right, it _ _ ’ _ _ s just right now _. And your thoughts muddle and from one moment to the next there’s a dead Kett on the ground.

It’s not the important one – the anointed – who actually just spotted you, but is too far to hit you and your body moves, quickly, efficiently, like it’s something you’ve done a thousand times. And it’s clutching its gut, your shot having partially missed from it’s semi-cover behind an outcropping and the heavy natural armor on its body.

_ It__’__s not right, _ your mind supplies. And in the same heartbeat something else says, _ it'__s fine. You'__re doing fine. _

As you line up your third shot, you decide to just roll with this. Even if it feels like you’re displaced in your own body at the moment, moving with a grace and efficiency unknown to you.

Well it’s killing Kett, can’t be all that bad. At the very least this time you have a sense of what you’re doing.

It’s frightening.

But before you know it, you’re twitching your finger over the trigger yourself without any enemies left. Even the weird dogs – wraiths, have been taken down by Cora without much trouble.

As you lower yourself down from the shuttle, you see Liam take aim at one of the bodies.

“Wait, Liam, it’s already dead,” you say, holstering your gun.

“Doesn’t matter.” And he lets loose a barrage into its chest before you manage to say anything else. “Almost killed us all, a little anger can’t be all wrong.”

“Liam –” you start, but is cut off by Cora.

“Just don’t waste ammo, we need to save it,” she remarks, turning to check on the others.

Apparently, Hayes still didn’t manage to get out of it without getting wounded. She staggers on Dr. Carlyle’s arm, her breath gargling on the blood gathering in the corner of her mouth as she falls to the ground.

“She’s been hit.” He’s already unloading something at his hip, likely medigel to get the worst of the damage out of the way. But you know what’s coming next and tensely watch the skies as the pressure in the atmosphere around you increases as an incoming lightning strike is about to arrive.

Both you and Liam move to the sides, but the pair is unable to with the risk of worsening Hayes’ wounds.

But as you hoped, Cora steps in front, just with enough time to put up her hand forcefully as thunder sounds and electricity strikes her barrier with a resounding crackle. She grunts with the effort, probably not used to using it after being frozen down for so long.

When she looks away as the barrier falls, you swore you could see hesitation in her features, as if she just displayed something unsightly.

“Nifty,” you say.

“Didn’t know you were biotic,” Liam supplies, finally holstering his gun.

“Don’t worry, it’s not contagious,” Cora retorts almost angrily, turning her attention to the others.

You never did get why she seems so displeased with showing off her biotics. Wasn’t it usually something of a norm in the military? People displaying biotic abilities are relatively common, especially with all the stuff about space travel being the everyday usage and using the relays. 

Well, that’s something you shouldn’t worry about at the moment. As Hayes, around the blood in her throat mentions that she’s managed to get the comms up and running again. 

“You’re a lifesaver, Hayes,” Cora says. “Just focus on hanging on for now alright?” 

“Can’t do much else,” Hayes says, easing her grip on doctors shoulders as she is gently helped down by experienced hands, as to ease the stress on her wound. 

And this is where you have absolutely no idea how to bring Alec up on the comm.

To your fortunate luck, SAM seems to have solved it for you as he speaks up over the headset built into your helmet. “...QEC link established, good to see you after your fall, Ryder. The Pathfinder wishes to talk to you.” 

You nod in affirmation, throat suddenly dry and what’s to come. Alec’s face pops up on your omni tool and you hear his semi-familiar voice even through the atmospheric static. 

“Good to see you in one piece. What’s our status?” Alec says, video blurring as he moves around to get better reception. 

“Liam and I am with Cora,” you croak out, coughing to clear your throat. “We’ve somehow gotten the shuttle up and running.” 

You feel another cough roll up your throat and Cora takes over. “We’ve got wounded, but with this we can get back to the arc.” 

“Not with this weather we can’t,” Alec says, picture fuzzy for a moment before it settles back again. 

Liam then chimes in, “Sir, we’ve got wounded, they won’t be able to last for as long as the storm takes to settle.” 

“Then we change that,” Alec says. 

“Uh,” Liam sounds a little sceptical, “Sir, we’re talking about the weather.” 

“I’ve got a solution for that,” Alec refutes, probably sounding really cryptic to anyone that didn’t know what he’s got in mind. You do, but it’s still not something you really _ understand _. “Meet me at my coordinates-” 

You suddenly hear a yell accompanied by a whoop, and Alec curses. “They saw us! Sarah! Sarah, come back behind cover! Scott, don’t!-” 

And thusly the call cuts off to a mix of worried and exasperated looks. Cora especially looks ready to charge ahead to make sure that Alec isn’t dragged into something severe without her at his side. 

You don’t really know what to make of it. There’s been an odd juxtaposition in your actions lately, competence with weapons for one and that voice combating your mental anxieties from going haywire. 

_ You’re fine. _

You feel the need to pinch your nose to hold off an oncoming headache, but with the helmet securely set, all you can really do is close your eyes and lean back against the side of the shuttle. 

It sounds like your own voice. 

Fine. Fine is the least you feel at the moment. Fine would be having somebody with competence rather than knowledge of the situation without the abilities to solve it. Fine isn’t a word that can even be in the league of how you feel, because fine is so far out of the left field that you can’t even dream of reaching it. 

“Ryder?” Liam has apparently stepped up to get your attention, his hand is gentle when he places it on your shoulder, a soft shake to gain your attention. 

You open your eyes to meet Liam’s. “Yeah?” 

Cora stands behind him, impatience radiating from every inch of her body that you can almost taste the biotics humming in the air around her. Likely a trained Huntress would have speed-enhancing abilities. 

At your look her way, Cora instead draws her attention to Hayes. “Can you handle it here?” 

Dr. Hayes looks sceptical, typing away at his omni tool. “I can keep her stable, but you’ll need to get the pathfinder fast. With hostile aliens around we’ll move into the shuttle, but I can’t keep it up forever.” 

“Understood,” Cora replies, “We’ll be quick.” She further assures him and gestures for you and Liam to follow. 

You obey, trying to shake the heaviness in your bones. It like you’re suddenly feeling the exhaustion, the constant movement, the fall you took earlier and the heavy burn down your side. 

They’re all of a sudden extremely present and loudly complaining in a loud chorus. You don’t feel so good. 

But onwards you’ll have to get, there are Kett to kill, mysteries to solve and most of all. 

Siblings to prevent from charging headfirst into an early death. 

Also a dad to prevent from plunging into that certain death. 

Good. Great. 

You trudge behind Cora, focusing on holding your balance on the precarious and acid-covered slope before you have to leap across a chasm to where there are several lightning rods set up. 

“Look,” Cora says, running past one just as thunder rumbles and the pole is struck. “They’re redirecting the lightning, not our tech though.” 

Liam agrees, “But they seem to draw it away pretty well, just gotta hug the wall and we should stay safe.” 

You almost run on past where the dead Kett lie, barely sparing a glance before Cora actually halts to inspect them. As lightning strikes without mercy at a lightning pole just a few meters away, she kneels down to get a closer look as you and Liam stand aside, keeping your hands on your guns just in case the Kett are not as dead as they appear. 

They stay still, even as Cora uses enhanced strength to turn one over, seeing several bullet wounds littering their front. 

“A shotgun. Very close range,” she says, glancing at the doorway that the bodies were in front of. “Doesn’t seem like they went in there, maybe a short skirmish before moving on.” 

“The pathfinder doesn’t seem the type to risk it. Getting that close I mean.” Liam says, squinting his eyes as he looks ahead, trying to make out anything between the flashes. 

“Alec doesn’t use a shotgun, no,” Cora affirms. “But I know Scott does.” 

Oh dear. 

“Well, we won’t find them here,” You say, checking over on your omni tool to where the coordinates indicate that the others are at. “They should be further ahead.” 

“Pretty close by if SAM is still connected to him,” Liam says, starting to walk ahead. 

Cora just stares at the Kett for a moment longer and then follows Liam. You end up at the tail of your group, side eyeing the corpses and pondering on why it’s not as unsettling for you to deal with corpses as you’d expected. 

Yet another thing to add onto the stack of oddities today. 

Ahead of you, Cora leaps up the ledges and you do your best to follow suit. Your leg stings as you have to catch yourself right before the top, but you manage. 

Shadowed by the overhang, three figures crouch and look outwards toward the kett facility. As Cora moves closer Alec reaches out an arm to signal the need for silence as he steps backwards to face the three of you. 

On each side of him, the twins crouch with their backs turned to you, Scott keeping his eyes out for the patrols around the lightning poles and the general facility and Sara seems to be fiddling with something in her hands. Flashes of lightning struck down around the base, all lead off from the shield-like barrier that encompassed the entirety of the ground leading up to the Tower. 

Cora looks out at the enemies flanking the various tech, “Who are these guys?” 

“Visitors like us,” Alec says, “I don’t think that they’re native to the planet.” 

You don’t comment, feeling immensely uncomfortable. However, instead of you, Liam chirps in; “We found some ships and what looked like a lab. I gotta agree, Pathfinder, this isn’t the native born here if they need those.” 

Liam then points to the lightning-poles. 

Alec gives a cursory glance over your group, his eyes landing on you. “Good work. We’ve been kind of swarmed since the crash but good to hear that you all have been scouting.” 

You just shrug. Nerves a bundle in your throat. You don’t think you could talk without croaking like a toad if you tried. 

“Sir, you said something about the weather?” Cora asks, leaning closer to Alec. 

“It’s a black energy cloud. The one that hit the Hyperion. It’s interfering with that.” He then points a finger at the tower and you peek a little more upwards, following the lashing energy as it curls along the side of the black metal and spreads out at the top and into the clouds. 

SAM’s voice then rings through all of your headsets. “The tower appears to be caught in a feedback loop with the cloud, creating the disrupting effects on the climate and the high charge in the atmosphere.” 

“Which suggests that if we manage to get in there and shut off the tower…” Alec starts, hand resting on his gun. 

“The lightning goes away,” Liam finishes. “Fixing the weather. That’s brilliant!” 

Alec nods. “In theory. So for now we have to get past _ them _ before we can even dream of setting that shuttle out of here.” 

You cough, clearing your throat. “I guess we won’t know until we try. Not much else to do in this kind of situation other than act.” 

To your right, Cora nods. “This will turn a skirmish with these guys into something worse.” 

“It’s them or us.” Alec says. 

“Oh, it’s definitely them,” Liam says, fishing out a new canister of bullets and reloading his gun. “Problem is we’re outnumbered.” 

Alec then, in all his Pathfinderly glory, goes all cryptic, opening his omni tool and saying; “Then we’ll even the odds.” 

And he presses a button, just like that, no intense wait, just him hitting a button and _ ka-pow_, bye lightning poles. 

It’s not nearly as awe inspiring as it seemed in the game, however, it does manage to scatter the kett to hell and back as they try and look for the source of the explosions, only to find their barrier bombarded with lightning from the high charge they carried. It takes no time at all until it's brought down. 

“Oh yeah, let’s get rolling!” hollers Sara as she leaps downward, her body charged with biotic pulses as she launches herself forward and into the fray. 

Scott just lets out a booming laugh, one that Liam joins in on before you all follow along the terrorizing ball of energy bounding around the field to take out enemies and dodging lightning strikes alike. 

“Back into the fray,” Alec says, fondness coloring his voice as he takes the lead ahead. You stay a bit in the back, unholstering your sniper from your back and waiting for a spot where you can hide behind whilst taking shots. 

Alas, the group moves too fast for you to settle, so you instead just stick to your handgun, keeping your dad in your peripheral as you take some light shots as the rest of the squad moves forward. Sara keeps to the right flank with Scott whilst Liam and Cora tries to manage the left flank. With Alec taking the lead, muttering commands to SAM and you sticking as close to him as you can manage while he switches between profiles.

“Keep close!” Alec yells when he steps, “Watch the lightning. We’ll have to keep moving to prevent them from overrunning us!” 

“Roger!” Liam calls. 

“Clear,” Cora says from your side, having stepped closer to follow her charge. 

Sara just slams down next to you, the burst of air from her arrival sending you stumbling and then Scott is there on your other side, supporting your arm to help you keep your balance. 

“We’re with you, dad,” says Scott, giving you a grin and a nod as he aims his pulse rifle - his shotgun is at his hip, unable to gain the distance needed for it you think - and he takes aim at the kett attempting to charge from ahead, right in front of the first gathering of buildings. 

“Where are we even going, by the way?” Sara asks, joining shoulders with Cora to send a wave of biotic energy at the incoming kett. 

Alec huffs, takes aim, and manages to clean out three kett with three shots. “All the way to the top.” 

“And then what?” Sara asks, sounding winded. 

“We’ll know when we get there!” Alec says. 

And he’s off, stomping ahead like until now all he’s been doing is sitting around while the rest of you are in various states of exhaustion. 

You’re not quite sure if yours is physical or mental at this point, but you do manage to keep up with the rest of them, so it can’t be too bad at the moment. You take your shot when you can between the rest of the fire being laid by your group, ducking behind cover to keep the attention away from you. 

It’s going relatively well, until you have to move out into the open area and leap across the chasm - likely created by an untimely strike of lightning - and you find that your jet-pack isn’t functioning as well as it should. 

You don’t tumble to your untimely and honestly, rather expected death, as you do manage to get your grip onto the edge. However, as you slam your upper body into the splintered metal, you can feel something _ crunch _ in there and all the air in your lungs is let out with a pathetic wheeze.

Even as you think this might be it. Several pairs of strong arms grasp onto you and hoist you the rest of the way up. 

“Woah, _ shit_.” Liam says. 

You’re practically cradled in his arms as he’d been lifting below your arms, and supporting your upper body from scraping up against the protruding pieces of bent metal, further than you’d already gotten acquainted with. 

“Pathfinder!” Liam calls over his shoulder, casting Alec’s attention back to his lacking troupe. 

And Alec then calls your name - not _ Ryder _ , not _ kid _ and not _ child _, but your actual name and it throws you off balance enough that you would have exclaimed at it. However, something is wrong around your lungs, so instead of letting out a sound of surprise, you instead let out a sound of dismay at the air whistling past your lips. 

“They’re not looking too good.” Liam reports, his arms support preventing you from folding in on yourself. “Their jets must’ve been damaged, probably from the tumble down with the shuttle. They took a rough hit.” 

“We don’t have time to bring them back,” Alec says, crouching by your side and meeting your eyes. “Think you can make it?” 

“M’okay,” you wheeze out, “Might need some help moving though.” 

“Got it. Kosta you’re going to carry them, Cora, Scott, keep the aliens off of them, we don’t want it to get worse.” He rises, hand resting on your shoulder for a moment. 

“And Sara,” Alec says, nodding at her. “Keep them occupied.” 

“Aye aye!” Sara says, mock salute as she propels herself forward, a wave of energy launching her from the level you’re at and up to the second floor of the building where she, from the taunting yells above the sound of gunfire - causes a havoc as ordered. 

Alec then leads the rest of you after her, further into the base. You have to be held in Liam’s arms as not to agitate your ribs with a fireman's carry. You just try not to breathe in too deeply, because you did that once as Liam leapt up to the second floor and you don’t feel like doing that again. One word for it was _ bad _and that your side is now on fire, while the next few moments makes you fear that you’d throw up inside your mask with the ringing in your ears. 

You vaguely hear the others talking back and forth, with Liam trying to keep you as stable as possible while moving. At some point, you sling your arm around his neck, trying to help him keep a grip on you. It works somewhat. Though it awards you with a dull pain from where you jostled your side. 

Hearing Alec and SAM talk over the comms for a bit, you finally spot the central platform where everything will go even further to shit. 

Sara charges and Scott follows to take care of the left flank, where there are still kett coming through. Alec and Cora keeps your asses clear as Liam carries you to the terminal. 

“Think we’ve found what we looked for, Pathfinder?” He asks, biting on a ‘_sorry _’ as you wince. 

“We have,” Alec says, sending out a hack at the enemies before he turns to survey the situation. “This is the core of this station and also the closest point to the tower.” He points upward. “I’ve got one shot at getting that thing turned off but I’ll need to open it up first.” 

Then he glances at the reinforcements arriving in droves, down at you, leaning up against the inside of the console and then finally at the tower. 

“Scott! Sara! Keep the left clean!” They both obey and settle as Alec calls the same to Cora and Liam about covering the right. 

You unholster your handgun, settling it within reach in case that some of those invisible ghastly beasts get a little too close. 

You needn't have bothered. As the moment any of them get close enough to try and take a bite out of the two of you, Alec reacts. Inhuman reflexes making him turn to shoot it point-blank as the beast collapses. And even then he just turns back to the console like nothing’s happened. 

It’s rather brutal, however it is literally you or the kett, so you’ll just have to throw up over the gory scene later and instead focus on breathing evenly as time passes. 

Finally, the kett back off, leaving your father enough time to finish his hack and open the doors a notch. Alec then bends down, scoops you up - you wheeze a little at the movement, however the sweat running down your back might be from fear as well as pain now. 

It’s here, the end of the prologue. The end of Alec Ryder’s life. 

And you’re unable to stand, much less run. 

_ Shit. _

But with the rest of the group shoving to open the door the rest of the way, you all leap inside the moment the opening is tall enough. Well leaping isn’t really within your capabilities, more like the moment Sara and Scott manages to pry the door open, Alec has carried you through. Even if none of the other notice, you feel the same crackle that Cora displayed as she threw up her barrier. 

The bellow of metal meeting metal rings through the otherwise steady silence within the tower as the door shuts and everyone takes a moment to gather themselves before looking about. 

“What is this?” Cora asks, putting a hand on the wall closest to her, “It’s smooth like glass but-” She stops herself, deep in thought. 

“Got ideas, but we don’t have the time to test it out,” Alec says, “But it seems like this was the right place to go.” 

He gestures at the floating triangle with a nod of his head, still holding you up. 

You’ve gotta get down on your own feet if anything, in case of having to tackle Alec to the ground the moment the remnant building starts its cleanup. Also Alec has to get his hands free if he’s gonna be able to interact with the surface. 

“Scott?” Alec calls, slowly lowering you down so you can lean on him, supporting your uninjured side. Wordlessly, the job is shifted over onto Scott’s shoulders. 

As you give him a smile and a nod, Alec turns to the triangle, reaching out with his hand. 

You don’t see that much of it, namely because your panic and pain are starting to drive nausea up through your throat. 

You have _ one chance _. One chance with cracked ribs and no way of knowing how to prevent it. 

_ Fuck. _You’re going to have to try regardless and hope the outcome isn’t catastrophic. 

You murmur to Scott, as he is the one closest to you. “We’ll have to clear out quick once dad’s done. Dunno what’ll happen once the storm is gone.” 

Scott nods, as if having thought of something similar, “Don’t think those aliens will let us walk out without a fight either.” 

You shiver at the thought as you really hope you don’t get this wrong. 

Alec finishes with a flick of his wrist and the light show turns off. A deep rumble making the building shudder as the tower stabilizes and manages to neutralize the heavily charged skies. Everything else stills as the triangle fades, leaving only the faint glow of the veins of energy to light the room. “Think that’s it. Time to go back to the shuttle.” 

“On it,” Sara says, walking forward and using the force of both her hands and her heavy biotics to force the door open. It seems didn’t manage to open fully and even got a bit stuck as the tower was restored to a favorable state. 

With the door fully open, Alec steps up to take your other side, helping you move forward with a little more ease. There’s a twinge in your side as you raise your arm, but it’s manageable.

There’s a terse silence, everyone waiting with bated breath until you step outside and gaze above at the calmed skies. 

No one speaks. None but a quiet monotone voice coming out from Alecs omni tool. 

“The skies are calm, the atmosphere has been restored.” SAM says, and then relays; “Doctor Hayes has retrieved our three missing crew members from the other crash site and is en route to our current location.” 

“Very well SAM,” says Alec, eyes still fixated to the skies. 

In fact, no Kett are present. So with the calmed rumble from above, nobody is keeping an eye on the opening of the tower. Nobody but you sees the rapidly approaching cloud, moving ahead with enough force to make the insides of the tower creak. 

You only have one choice.

“DAD!” 

You shove him and Scott away. Trying to get him away from the door. Trying, and failing, as your ribs creak and despite using what feels like all the powers residing in your body, fail, as he mostly stumbles before seeing the threat behind you. 

You’re sent flying. 

Your side colliding painfully with the metal of the platform as you’re shoved down and forward. Something inside your ribcage finally gives in and you taste blood on your tongue. 

Falling, like before, is terrifying. This time you don’t even have the time to activate your boosters or catch yourself before your flight is broken by the merciless collision with the ground below. 

You can’t breathe. Not because of a broken helmet, but because of blood clotting your throat and a whistle in your lung that promises death. 

But it will not cost your father’s life, for there is nothing he can do to change this. You cough, gasping for air and drawing what feels like stone into your broken body. 

You hear Alec speaking, but the words slip and fade between rasping gasps of air. Like sand between your fingers, you can feel blood seep from cracks in your chest-piece and soaking the ground below you. 

With hands that tremble, Alec slides a hand beneath you, lifting you from the cold, ruthless ground and through the fog in your head - or was it on the inside of your helmet? You do feel warm, much too warm - you see, hear Alec talking to somebody on his omni tool. 

Blood stains his gloves as he supports you as best as he can. 

You can’t hear anything aside from the ocean in your lungs. 

But you made it. 

_ You made it _.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any complainers will be directed to our in-house security, snowsheba, and forced to recite the history of the complainer's current country of habitation before being tomato'd and kicked out of the theater. your comedic act will not be compensated.


	4. For those concerned (which is you)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A second wake-up call hits you and you really wish that you didn't have SAM in your head.

You wake up with a startle, heart thundering in your ears, static flooding your senses like you’ve just woken from a coma yet again. 

_ Wait, again? _

It’s hazy, your eyes watering as you wheeze out a breath of too-quickly-taken air. The room spins, blood rushing to your head as you sit up. Your arms shake and you swear that the room  _ doubles _ for a moment, even as you put your head in your hands. 

“What-” You croak, doubling over and coughing, tasting dried iron on the roof of your mouth. 

“What happened?” 

You raise your head from your hands once the discomfort is mangable. Everything in your head feels scattered and you can barely string two thoughts together long enough to register before the pain behind your eyes makes them fall apart. 

Somebody steps up, the sound of their footsteps like hammers in the back of your head. 

“Here, drink something. It’ll help.” 

Obediently, you tilt your head back at the cup put to your lips, thankfully the water flushes the last of the rust down your throat and you blink at whoever is standing beside you. 

“SAM?” They say, and your eyes sting, sight swimming like being under the water of a pool. “Are they alright? They seem dazed.” 

_ “Acknowledged, the trauma their body has taken will fade and by doctor T’Perro’s word, they should have no lingering issues after having our connection stabilized _ .” 

You can now make out a muddled room, their face cast in light from some source behind you.

Finally, your thoughts click. 2

Waking up in a game. The prologue.  _ Saving Alec at the cost of your own.  _

_ Ryder, I will have to assess why you are knowledgeable of what was to occur. However, with what you know, I will assure you that you have not died.  _

That’s great, you guess. Even if it makes no sense. 

You turn to the person beside you, squinting until features focus and you see that it’s Liam by your side. 

“What happened down there Liam? Where am I?” You look around, taking in what could only be SAM-node and not the medbay, you know, where you’d expect to bring patients. “Why am I in SAM-node? Where’s dad?” 

“Ok, ok. One at a time.” Liam says, raising his hand to run it through his hair as he looks at you, letting it slide down to rub at the base of his neck. “A lot of bad stuff happened down there on habitat 7, one of them being you almost dying since the shuttle couldn’t get back to us fast enough.” 

He sighs, averting his gaze. “And your dad… He’s back here on Hyperion, back in the medbay. To save you, he did something with SAM.” A shake of the head. “We don’t exactly know what he did, only that it made his own SAM-inplant short-circuit and caused some serious trouble. So to keep him from dying from  _ that _ Hayse put him in an artificial coma or something.” 

“ _ Indeed. Kosta’s assessment of the situation includes all necessary variables to give a basic outline what occured since you’ve lost consciousness. _ ” 

Even with you hearing him speak over the intercoms in the room, you also ‘hear’ him somewhere in the back of your mind. 

_ As you already know, this is our private channel. I cannot guarantee privacy between us, for Alec never set limiters within his own SAM-implant. Apologies, Ryder.  _

You don’t think you send SAM a coherent thought back, but you don’t get any more private chatter in your head, so you believe you’ve been left to think. 

Not that you get a whole lot of that done, with your brain still set to tv-static. However, you try and focus on what’s in front of you - Liam looking apologetic and waiting for your reaction. 

“I don’t-” Alec isn’t dead. 

“I can’t take it in.” You say, closing your eyes and leaning forward. “Sounds impossible. That he’d risk it all... wait.” 

Oh no. “Who’s the Pathfinder then?” You’re pretty sure you know, but with the way Liam helplessly shrug, you can feel the steel settle in your stomach. 

“He did it to save you.” You hadn’t seen Cora enter the room, but the damned doors are soundless. “With SAM transferred to you. So did the role of Pathfinder.” 

She doesn’t sound quite as passive-aggressive about it as she did in the game. However, you can still catch on to a sense of disappointment as she gazes at SAM node. 

“With the way everything went, there is little we can do other than find the Nexus and pray that all the other arcs managed to have a much less chaotic start than us.” 

Yeah, that’s, uh, not likely. Sorry, Cora. 

You just hang your head. Even with how you feel more awake than before, the sense of dread that is starting to weigh down your shoulders makes you want to lay down and never wake up. 

Someone’s omni tool pings, disturbing the silence that had cast over the three of you. 

Lexi speaks from whoever answered, “I’ve been notified by SAM that the Pathfinder is awake. Unfortunately, so did Sara and Scott. I’d brace yourselves before their arrival and also make sure that the Pathfinder is not removed from their cot at the moment until Harry and I have looked them over.” 

Her voice cuts off, just in time before the doors leading into SAM node slide open and you hear hurried steps before you’re engulfed in two pairs of arms. 

“You’re awake!” 

“Are you okay?!” 

They’re not nearly as forceful as the first time, in fact, Sara has slid down to wrap her arms around your waist and press her face into your stomach as she talks. While Scott sits on the cot with you, pulling you to lean against his side with an arm slung around your shoulders and his forehead pressing against the top of your head. Both of them have been crying. 

You can also feel tears press against your will. The thought of everything that’s going to happen lays on your shoulders, the thought of your dad, in a coma in the medbay because you couldn’t keep yourself in one piece and the thought that despite everything bad that will happen, these two will be with you. 

You can’t stop yourself once the first tear escapes, turning to wrap your arm around Scott and hide your face in the crook of his shoulder. Your other hand gropes for Sara’s and receives it, a strong hold, meant to reassure. With them by your side, you let your tears go. 

* * *

Somewhere between them entering the room and you letting your waterworks flow, Cora and Liam left. Which is fine, because there is something important you have to tell the twins. 

Shifting over, Scott sits still by your side, however Sara has slid down to just sit on the floor, leaning over the cot to hold your hand. 

“Dad didn’t limit SAM.” 

Both twins look puzzled at that, “What?” 

“SAM is literally in here.” You say and tap your free hand against your forehead. “Dad kept it a secret from everyone. But now he’s in my head and I guess I wanted you to know about this too. In case something happens and this cape is passed on again.” 

You shrug. Honestly you don’t yet know the intricacies of how Alec managed to fully implement an AI into his conscious, even with a SAM-implant. On that note, once you’re on the Tempest, maybe you should ask SAM to dig into Alec’s files to let you read up on it. 

_ Very well, Ryder. As you will undergo your checkup I will assemble a summarization of the notes that Alec kept about the project.  _

Oh. Nice. 

_ You’re welcome, Pathfinder.  _

“That’s…” Scott mutters, thinking it over, “That’s insanely illegal.” 

“And genius.” Sara says. 

“Yeah, and the worst idea I’ve ever heard.” 

“Mhm.” 

“It’s both of those things, and possibly more.” 

“Yep.” 

Both of them just share a grin before turning their attention back to you. 

“You know we’ll help you, right?” Sara says, giving your hand a squeeze. 

“Yeah,” you say, “It’s just, kind of sudden and I’m like, not able to cover all my bases here by just saying that I have no idea how to do this in the first place.” 

Not entirely a lie.

“Hey, don’t worry, we won’t let you go out there alone.” Scott reassures you, smiling down at you as you take in a deep breath. 

You don’t feel like death anymore, but no summons have been patched through from Lexi or Harry, so you’re just kind of biding your time until you’ll be arriving at the Nexus. 

Honestly, there’s overlapping emotions and memories swimming around on the surface of your mind, added with how your body sometimes feels like it’s acting on reflexes and instincts that you don’t possess. 

It’s unnerving, and you still feel slightly displaced. However, it’s not as bad as it was on Habitat 7. 

On top of figuring out whatever  _ that _ is, there’s also the issue of managing to talk all civil-like with Tann and Allison. You think you can get along with Kandros and Kesh, but the two others will be problematic. Especially with all the shit they’ve let slide that you know about. God you wonder how much the game didn’t tell you about that could also have happened. 

The three of you sit and ponder over each your own thoughts, time passing before a slight beep from your omni tool alerts to Lexi being on her way to lead you to the medbay. Obediently, both the twins stay back to have a chat with SAM as you’re led by the doctor back to the bed you woke up on. 

“I’m gonna scan your SAM-implant first. I want to make sure the forced transfer wasn’t too hard on you. SAM did keep you alive until we could stabilize you, but there’s the chance of it having stressed the tissue around your implant.” She keeps her eyes locked with yours as she says this and you get the gist that this is a very serious topic, with an underlying order of ‘come to me the moment you think something might be wrong with it.’

You just nod, laying down on the soft bedding as she scans and prods, at one point, she needs you to stand up and stretch - arms above your head, touching your toes, basically anything you should be able to do normally - to make sure that the skin and muscles around your chest isn’t sore or feels uncomfortable. 

“Fortunately, with so few people around, we’ve yet to experience any serious issues or wounds, so almost none of the facilities had been occupied as we brought you in. Because of that, your transfusion went seamlessly and Harry managed to stabilize you before we had to worry about blood loss becoming critical.” Lexi continues, idle chatter to keep you awake as she prods about here and there to look everything over.

After a while, she shocks you when she asks; “Do you want to see Alec?” 

You’re mute for a bit, thinking it over. “I’d like that, yeah.” 

Helping you to your feet, she leads you over to a separate part of the medbay. Here, it’s more cut off from the rest, and there are more machinery protruding from the medbay beds than others. 

One of them is occupied. 

“I’ll leave you two alone for a bit, ok?” 

You nod. With a gentle tap on your arm, Lexi walks back out, already talking to Harry as she taps away on her omni tool. 

It’s quiet in here, and you realize that there is a glass door leading into this part of the medbay that you hadn’t noticed, efficiently blocking out any chatter from the other side. 

The machine by Alec’s bed beeps, recording a steady pulse as you stare at him, just laying there, asleep. 

You have no idea what to say. So instead of starting to prattle on, you sit down on a bench lining the wall right beside where Alec is. 

You put your head in your hands. “I don’t know if I can do this.” 

_ Pathfinder. If I may?  _

You shrug. 

_ With the damaged tissue around SAM-implant I cannot connect to Alec at the moment. However, I can offer you advice on your current situation as I have numerous experiences with anticipating Alec’s way of making decisions and can draw upon those to create a possible solution to your current situation.  _

Well it can’t hurt. 

_ Acknowledged.  _

You sit there for a while, SAM silent, staring at the prone form of your father. 

It’s still unnerving, how you feel both distant and familiar with the Ryder family members. 

_ From the files available, there are no logs of multiple memories aside from people speaking of reincarnation. That they feel familiar in places they’ve never seen before and that they know people they’ve never talked to previously.  _

But that doesn’t make sense. Why would you be reincarnated into an already adult body? 

_ Indeed. There is little logic as to why you would also be in possession of details regarding this reality and few of your ‘old’ one.  _

Yeah thats. That’s kind of fucked up. Urgh. You try and think about your old life, and only few things float to the surface of the turbulent sea that resides in your mind. Old life, new life, even scattered memories from SAM or your dad lures on the horizon. 

You have absolutely no idea how to take this. 

_ For now, I would recommend that you take the time to recover from your ordeal. According to your known timeline, there will be many events occurring shortly after your arrival at the Nexus, and acting on these events will perhaps help you cement yourself.  _

“Great.” You mutter. 

_ Apologies Ryder.  _

You hang your head, exhausted. There is way too much to manage right now and not a lot of time to do it. 

You turn to your dad. He hasn’t moved an inch since you last glimpsed at him. He looks comfortable, unhurt aside from a few scratches here and there. Nobody would be able to tell that he’s on the verge of a bodily shutdown from how he’d made a desperate decision in a horrible situation. 

“I’ll try and make you proud, dad. That’s the least I can do.” You say to him, not feeling the confidence you try to project into the words. 

You leave without a third look at him. You’d lose your nerve if you did. 

Outside, Harry waits, a datapad in hand as he sees you walk back out. “Got everything out?” 

“Yeah. What’s up, Harry?” you redirect the question, straightening your spine and calling attention back to your limbs. There are a few complaints, but nothing too bad. 

“Well with the scans Lexi got, there seems to be no problems. However, as I now know how bad it can go if the SAM-implant isn’t managed right, I’d like to tell you that if you ever experience sudden migraines or dizziness, please for everything holy, come to me or Lexi.” Harry looks so very tired, you get the impression that Alec wasn’t the easiest patient to manage, much less have assigned as your benefactor. 

“I’ll check in Harry.” You try and reassure him. “Can’t have another Pathfinder in there.” 

He winces at that and you think your dark humor might’ve been a little ill-timed. Oh well. You make your way out of the medbay hearing announcements from the captain over the speakers, stepping out and into the corridor leading to the trams, you only see the odd engineer looking at panels and working on keeping the Hyperion going. 

As you’re almost at the station, you run into Cora. 

“Hey,” You say in lieu of greeting, stepping into the tram and setting it up to go back to the deck. Cora huffs something similar in response but stays silent until the doors have closed behind you. 

Sitting down on one of the benches, you pat the seat next to you. Cora looks at you for a moment, almost seeming calculative before she abides by your request. 

“Are you feeling alright?” She asks, wincing as she realizes how simple the answer to that is; not at all. 

You just look at her, seeing the grief in her and how she’s trying to seem composed. Like any of you would be orderly and calm after  _ that _ ordeal. A tired smile graces your lip as the tram hums around you, the faint voice of commentary from the captain. 

“Could’ve been better. Not gonna lie Cora.” 

“I see.” 

“Been down to see dad yet?” 

She shakes her head. Oh. 

“You should get on with that, you know.” 

“I can’t.” Eyes flickering around the room, anxious. A touch of blue haze around fingertips, a subconscious response. Cora’s breath stutters and she closes her eyes. “I can’t see him.” 

Well, it wasn’t like you would ever force her. 

The rest of the ride is relatively quiet, the tram shuffles to a halt, destination announced over the speakers. You stand from the bench, careful of your sore ribs. A glance down at Cora reveals that she’s still locked in that same position. 

“You wanna come with?” You ask, as she nods in reply and you walk ahead. 

Command is, essentially, a chaotic state. According to the announcements you were approaching the Nexus, and as you step out onto the brig, you also see the huge station tower in the distance, circling the planet. 

The captain is leaned over the main panel, speaking with the various crew sitting around and reporting back on things like status and communication. 

“Captain, I’m only receiving the automated response, not a live person.” 

The Captain sighs, thinking it over for a moment. “We’ll be docking regardless of protocols. Bring us in.” 

It’s not as instantaneous a process as the game made it out to be. There are a lot of adjustments according to the gravity of the planet that the Nexus circles around and without responses on the other side, attaching the Hyperion to the Nexus is a very lengthy and exhausting process. In the meantime while all this has been going on, you’ve been sitting on a bench behind command, observing how the captain hands out orders. With the time until docking procedures are finished, you have to learn some degree of leading and with the additional knowledge of how to maneuver the Hyperion, you get an impression of how convoluted space travel is. 

Finally, after a couple hours or more has rolled by - Cora brought the two of you some protein-bars at some point that you ate in silence. Whereas as the captain turns to you with a nod, you’re already rising from your seat. 

“First touchdown goes to the Pathfinder.” 

Time to see how bad the situation is. 

* * *

Cora is a silent shadow as you walk out to the tram, whereas Liam is standing to the side, apparently he’s got a notion of what’s to come as he clasps a hand on your shoulder and walks along. 

With you being the Pathfinder, there is some untold protocol that you’d be the first one to board the Nexus and establish contact with whoever is there before the rest of the Hyperion would follow along. However, as you step into the tram, Sara and Scott are already sitting casually on the seats. Seems like the Ryders are sticking together. 

The ride is tense, with Liam chatting back and forth with the others as you sit with your head on Sara’s shoulder. Seems like he’s about as ready as the others at the prospect of a warm welcome with alcohol and a base of operation that is all ready. Alas, none of them mention how damaged the Nexus looked out through the windows, nor how the lights flicker in the pathway as you step out. 

The sheer enormousness of the entrance hall is not lost on you. This place was meant to be filled with life, laughter and the open arms of people welcoming others home. Instead it is now filled with crates and junk, dark and abandoned. 

“I think there’s missing something here.” Liam comments, looking around. “Like, I can live without the champagne, but I expected at least there to be people.” 

You just walk on ahead as the others talk. The AI is dead to the side of the steps leading down, likely to save even the slightest speck of power. It wasn’t a very logical thing to keep active in the midst of a disaster regardless. 

Activating your omni tool, you take a look at it. As expected, almost everything is either deactivated or on emergency power.

And then there’s a human form, crouched behind some crates and fiddling with a panel. 

The others keep quiet, likely also having seen them on your screen. Then again, you all make sure to make noise as you maneuver around crates and loose cords, stepping up behind him, you make sure to shuffle a little in place before speaking. 

“Hello?” 

“Ah! Shit, fuck!” He still startles, almost hurting himself as his hands jump from where they’re working on some electronics set into the underside of the panel. “What the hell?” 

And then he turns around to look at you. It’s almost comical how his eyes widen and he seems to be in denial. 

“Uh, hi?” Liam says, leaning down and reaching out his hand to help the man up. “We’re with the Hyperion? You know. The human arc.” 

The man looks stunned at Liam for a moment before accepting his hand. “Jesus Christ, you’re real.” 

“As real as it gets man.” Liam says, smiling. He then continues to talk to the man, easing his frayed nerves and making him elaborate on the situation as you all are escorted onto the tram leading further into the Nexus. 

It’s unnervingly empty in the majority of the Nexus, and the impact that the exiles caused is truly visible with how the man's hands shake as he tells the tale of the fourteen months after the first awakenings on the Nexus. You do feel sympathetic to his situation, but all this isn’t something new to you as you await your imminent arrival at command. 

Actually, as the man had talked, he’d also typed some messages into his omni tool and as you all step into the slightly livelier centre of the Nexus, Kandros is ready to receive you. 

“Welcome Hyperion.” Kandors drawls, stepping up to greet you. “We’re sorry about the lack of reception, we thought the contact was yet another issue in the system.” 

As you look at him, you realize how truly  _ different _ turians look. Pixels and digital designs can only go so far and you feel off-balance for a moment as your eyes meet his. Black sclera with just a ring of color. Then you quirk your lip into a smile and step forward, having to take the initiative now that you’re facing one of the leaders of the Nexus. 

Hah, taking the  _ initiative.  _ What a joke. 

“We understand,” As he reaches out a hand, you hesitate only for a moment before taking it. “We’ve also not had the best start to Andromeda.” 

The mandibles framing his face shifts as he looks at you. Undoubtedly, as a military commander, he’d know that the human Pathfinder should be a man in his late fifties, not this young meat that looks like they’ve been through a blender. 

“I’m Tiran Kandros, leader of the militia on the Nexus.” He finally introduces himself. 

“It’s nice to meet you Kandros,” you say, nodding.

“I’m sorry to say, but I’d expected to see Alec Ryder arriving as the representative of your arc.” Kandros says, but then turns to lead you into headquarters. “But, with how everything’s been lately, it wouldn’t surprise me if we lost him too.” 

You sigh, “I’m afraid you’re somewhat right Kandros. My father is unable to be the Pathfinder right now and I’ve had to pick it up instead.” 

He gives you a look over his shoulder, then shakes his head. “Very well. But don’t expect us to be able to say the same. Almost everyone in higher command has died, and we’re all just scrambling to fill their posts.” 

You’ve now stepped into the main foyer of the Nexus headquarters, littered with people running around and fiddling with interacting with the systems through their omni tools or on other panels or such. 

As Kandros starts to walk up the ramp leading to the front where the giant windows frame from floor to ceiling. “I’ll introduce you, but I can’t stick around. Too many things to keep track of to let it just sit and stew.” He pauses for a second then, looking down at you, “But if you’ve got time, stop by my station downstairs when you’re done with the politicians. I’d like to hear about what you ran into on Habitat 7.” 

“Sure thing.” You say. Behind you, the rest of the group has scattered, retconning from multiple sources what the state of the Nexus actually is. The only one that you actually can see from where you’re being led, is Liam talking with a turian down where it looks to be the militia central. 

“Allison,” Kandros calls, looking up at a person standing on the upper platform. “Got the Pathfinder.” 

And he then straight up turns and walks away, leaving you to deal with Allison and Tann that stands beside her. Both, at the sight of you walk down to introduce themselves. 

“Foster Allison,” The human says, “In charge of colonial affairs.” 

“Jarun Tann,” Introduces the salarian, “Director of the initiative.” 

Then Allison eyes you over, displeasure seemingly oozing out of every bone in her body at what she sees. “I believed the human Pathfinder to be Alec Ryder. You, are not him.” 

Tann is also eyeing you, about the same level of irritation displayed as he likely has already figured out what’s happened. 

You can feel a headache coming on. “I am not, no. However, with my father in a coma. I’d say our situation is a bit better than the alternative.” 

Tann just huffs at that, “A likely story.”

You just stare at him, suddenly not feeling up to dealing with his scepticism on top of everything else. 

“Listen.” You say, “I’m all you have,  _ Director _ . And as it seems none of the others have arrived, I’d like a proper debrief and you to point me to where we can start laying some groundwork.” 

That is probably the most words you’ve said in a row since you woke up in this nightmare, but just everything that Tann and Allison has managed to fuck up  _ that you know of _ makes your blood boil when there are people that need assistance and they’re holding back on account of you not being your father. Talk about hypocrisy considering that the only reason they’ve gotten their positions is through the deaths of their own superiors. 

Somebody barks out a laugh to your right, and a tall female krogan steps into view. “I like this one.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you ever just [fades out of existence due to depression], yeah that's me, but here's an update so [jazz hands] 
> 
> Obligatory reminder that any complainers will be directed to our in-house security, snowsheba, and forced to recite the history of the complainer's current country of habitation before being tomato'd and kicked out of the theater. your comedic act will not be compensated.


	5. Welcome, welcome (help us please)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nexus mess being introduced! 
> 
> Man do you not want to deal with all of that.

Kesh walks over to the three of you, reaching out to clasp a hand on your shoulder. “I like your fire there, but be careful not to burn out too fast.” 

She smiles at you, and then looks over to the others. “I’m sure I can manage to debrief the Pathfinder, Tann. Before you both manage to chase our only hope away.” 

They both bristle at that, however; “I’ll see you in my office after you’ve been debriefed  _ Pathfinder. _ ” Tann almost hisses. You only acknowledge him with a nod and then turn your attention back to the krogan crowding you. 

As Allison walks back to her previous post, Kesh gives you a smile. “The name’s Nakmor Kesh, in charge of not letting everything fall to shit, also known as superintendent if you care for the fancy wording.” 

“It’s nice to meet you Kesh,” You say, still a bit tense with how you’d confronted the others before. “I hope I haven’t given too bad an impression.” 

She laughs again, “Oh no, good to see someone not just letting them take charge. Keeps them on their toes that it won’t just be me.” 

You huff out a breath, feeling the stab of your headache. “Glad to know, superintendent.” 

“Oh just call me Kesh.” 

“Alright. Then Kesh, how come you’re not about to bite my head off for not being my dad?” 

You’re not really serious about it, but her face turns hard as she looks at you. Then, with her hand still on your shoulder, she leads you forward to face the giant windows. Out there, lights start to flicker and live, casting a real look at how damaged the station is. 

“You see that?” Kesh asks, “That right there is because of you finding us, it’s a fighting chance to keep it up, keep us alive.” 

You look at her, the krogans form illuminated by the lights from outside. “But it’s hope. And I’ll be damned if we lose that.” 

You guess you can get behind that. 

* * *

Afterwards, with what you manage to get out of Kesh, the general situation is a little clearer than the hurried words of the engineer on the way to headquarters. It’s, uh, pretty bad all in all. You know that there was a lot of casualties, but the sheer  _ number _ you’re handed paints a horrible picture of what’s been going on for fourteen months. 

“God.” You say, head in your hands. You’re sitting in a chair in Kesh’s office, talking over what happened to the Nexus, the rebellion, the outposts, the krogans, and not least; the death of almost every superior officer including the founder of the initiative. 

You’re a bit more exhausted just by taking it in. 

“Yeah, can’t fault you.” Kesh says, sympathetically. “It’s been pretty bad, and with no leads nor sights of any arcs, we’ve been having a bad time trying to keep morale up.” 

“Morale only works until somebody remembers that they are running out of rations.” You murmur. 

“There’s that, yep.” 

“Is there anything else you’d like me to keep an eye on Kesh?” You ask, raising your face to look at her. 

She reaches out to pull up yet another document on her console. She’d been doing that often, to help you get a more detailed report on the happenings around here and to give a timeline for things that she can’t recall the specifics of. “Honestly, Pathfinder. There’s only one thing, but we’ll talk about it more once you’ve gotten your first settlement done, alright?” 

“Alright.” You oblige. 

“Now, since I took colonial issues out of Allisons hands.” Kesh’d given you a great many details on how first Promise and Resilience had fallen and how most of the resistance built their nest on Havarl. She even mentions the Angara, though doesn’t delve into detail about them since they’d been rejected by them once and doesn’t have the resources to make a second attempt. 

“Try and have a talk with Kandros before you go and yell at Tann.” Kesh says, already tapping away at the console, likely writing a rapport of your chat with her for the others to read. 

“Got it.” You say, already walking out the door. “Thanks, for everything Kesh.” 

“Don’t mention it Ryder.” 

As you step outside the room, there are arms slinging around your shoulders. Sara has apparently been waiting for you to be done. “Heard you gave the higher ups a what-for.” 

You glance at her. 

She grins at you. “Nice.” 

Since she then doesn’t say anything more, you just shrug and keep walking, with her half hanging off your back like a koala. What an image the great and mighty pathfinder paints. You couldn't care less. 

Arriving at the corner of headquarters that has been designed for militia operations, you see, that like everything else in comparison to the game, is a lot larger and much more purposely sorted. But of course it is, a shucked away piece of headquarters couldn’t be functional, even with the situation at hand. Especially since about a fourth of the people here are turians, and they appreciate a working military structure even if they’re not involved with it themselves. 

You approach Kandros with your older sister glued to your shoulders, and all he does is raise an eye-ridge as he observes you walk to his console. 

“Hey Kandros, don’t know if you’ve met my oldest sibling?” You say in lieu of introduction. 

“Can’t say I have, Pathfinder.” 

You smile, reaching a hand back to pat at the fluff of hair by your neck. “This is my sister, Sara. Sara, this is Kandros, leader of the militia here on the Nexus.” 

You then look back to Kandros, shrugging Sara’s arms off so that you can step closer and lean against the console. “So, Kandros. Kesh updated me on the situation in regards to rations and storage and how you’re unable to bring any more people out of cryo. But I haven’t heard from you how it’s really going with those hostile aliens that seemingly roam around Andromeda.” 

Kandros steps closer, hand hovering over the console as he summons files and reports from his side of the situation - the defense and ops side, where people fight and win or die on behalf of the foundation. “The situation is not looking good. But you probably would have guessed that from what you heard from Kesh.” 

You shrug. Crossing your arms over your chest as your fingers dig into the fabric of your shirt. It’s really not looking good, especially with what you get from the reports that Kandros has pulled up. Failed missions, the losses from exiles, likely even more that he won’t dreg up from the pile. 

“Yeah,” You huff out, headache starting to become persistent in the back of your head. “I got a rough outline, but I don’t know how bad it is on the side of our soldiers.” 

Kandros is silent for a moment, likely thinking over what you should know. “It’s not as bad as it could be, all things considered.” He draws in a breath, “If you manage to settle a proper post on one of the golden worlds, we should be able to steadily fill the holes left by our losses.” 

“Same as Kesh then.” 

“Yeah, a functioning post comes first in any case.” He then looks you over, glancing to the form of Sara behind you, likely also paying attention. “I’ll give you authority to send out my teams for support and to gather materials as well as covering enemy territory. I’ll trust you to make the right decisions regarding this. I’d like you not to disappoint, I’ve lost too many but you will need the support if I have the right feeling about this.” 

The last part is said with some hesitance, but even with you green behind the ears, he trusts your judgement enough to permit you to wield this kind of authority. “Thanks, Kandros. I’ll do my best.” 

“Couldn’t ask for anything more.” Kandros says with a nod, turning his attention back to his omni tool. “Tann will want you at his office, good luck Pathfinder.” 

“Thanks.” You say, stepping aside to let him have full access to the console again. 

As you step back up the ramp leading to the director's office, you find that aside from Sara, Scott has also joined your merry troupe. They chat a bit back and forth as you find your way through throngs of people watching the human Pathfinder pass by. Finally, you step in through the double doors leading into the office, and with the doors sliding closed behind you, you see that Cora is already talking with Tann. 

“We found habitat 7 ruined, nothing could sustain life there.” 

“That has become the truth for all the golden worlds.” Tann says, nodding to the holograph. “We believe the scourge is artificial and as spread out as it is, it has infected all that it touches and destroys it.”

“An artificial energy cloud?” Cora looks sceptical. 

“It wasn’t here when we left the Milky Way.” Tann counters, turning his attention to you. “Any ships coming into contact are lost, any life that may have existed on our six chosen worlds is gone.” 

He pauses for a moment, “I believe you also have run into hostile aliens - The Kett, we call them. They are obsessed with the alien tech that exists around the cluster. With no interest in dealing with us - they’re incredibly hostile, we’ve lost a great number to them.” 

“Murder isn’t exclusive to the Milky Way.” You murmur under your breath, recalling the small snippet. Sara shifts behind you and you think that she and Scott may be having a silent conversation behind you. 

Tann shoots a look at you as he then starts fiddling with the terminal in front of him. “Yes. I suppose it isn’t. Now, the challenge is to settle a world in spite of that.” 

Another hologram, one different from habitat 7 is pulled up. “This one - Eos.” 

You lean forward, inspecting the image and seeing little green if any at all on the surface. “How would you go about doing that?” 

“ _ I  _ won’t be facing that. It will be a challenge set for the Pathfinder. You will have to increase the viability of the planet and settle an outpost. When that is done, we will be able to pull more people out of cryostasis.” 

Tann shrugs, resting one hand on his hip as he keeps his eyes on you. “With more people out, we’ll be able to gather more resources towards supporting the Nexus. And with that, we can then continue to work towards establishing secure outposts.” 

Cora sighs from where she is standing beside him. “Everything depends on the Pathfinder Team.” 

“Correct.” Tann says. 

“And I’m going to guess that the solution to fixing an unlivable planet will fall onto us - or more specifically, me.” You say, crossing your arms. 

“Hey now.” Scott finally speaks up. “That’s impossible.” 

“Well dad did it. Sort of.” Sara says. 

Tann gives the twins the sort of glance served to the cousins that he wished never came to the family get-together. “I would suppose that a Pathfinder would relish such a challenge.” 

You almost visibly tense. Feeling your exhaustion trail away and be swapped out with a low simmering distaste at Tann and the situation he’d landed the Nexus in. “So I guess I am dispensable.” 

The headache that had been building becomes louder with your added stress and you almost flinch at the pain. 

Tann gives some vague excuse about gambling. But there’s suddenly a ringing in your ears, drowning out most of anything that anybody in the room says. 

Scott objects and Sara chimes in with something behind you, with Sara coming up to grasp your arm lightly as if wishing to tug you back. After a minute, Cora says something back that makes the room at large shut up. 

Raising a hand to pinch at the bridge of your nose, you summon your patience not to snap. “Just point me in the right direction. I don’t suppose you’ve got a ship?” 

There’s blood on your fingers when you look at them after wiping your nose. It’s wrong, but you can’t think clearly over the ringing in your ears. 

“Yes.” Tann speaks, somewhere on the edge of your hearing. “The ship is currently being loaded by the docks.” 

You make an impatient gesture, turning to step outside of the office. 

_ Ryder, the implant seems stable. I cannot pinpoint where the cause of your headache is rising. I will need you to step into SAM-node to let me get a more thorough scan. _

No fucking shit. You think whatever the displacement you experienced back on habitat 7 might be related. 

_ If that is the case, I will have to request you to be careful. As I have yet to find the connection between your two-case memories. Recalling your past or present memories seem to trigger some unknown reaction in your brain. Contacting doctor P’terro may be advisable.  _

You want to comply, but first you have to take a minute to lean against the wall outside of headquarters, feeling the eyes of Sara and Scott on you. 

“You ok?” Scott asks, stepping up beside you as you can feel the heat his body emanates. 

“Peachy.” You say, opening your eyes to spot that your fingers are further stained by blood, dripping from your nose. “Alright, maybe not.” 

He bends down to see what you’re staring at, winces and then reaches into a pocket to hand you a tissue. You stare at it for a moment before accepting, pressing it to the blood flow. 

“I have to get to SAM-node.” You say, rising from your slouched position against the wall. “Something’s not right.” 

“On it.” Scott says, his hand suddenly steadying your back. 

“Yeah, need a piggy-back?” Sara asks. 

“No.” You say, blinking to clear the black spots from your vision. “No, I think I’ll make it.” 

Scott makes a slight disagreeing sound deep in his throat before handing you another tissue. You accept it, putting it in your own pocket. 

You’ve apparently lost Cora somewhere along the way, or maybe she did not follow the lot of you outside. However, you don’t have that much extra focus to ponder on it as your nose is rather annoying and your head still rings. 

Walking down past the militia down to reach the tram, you give Kandros a wave as you pass - and apparently Liam is there too as you spot him chatting with a female turian. 

Reaching the tram, you sit down heavily on the padded seats. Leaning back with the tissue almost shoved up your nose. 

_ Ryder, you should not lean backwards when having a nosebleed. The blood will gather and clog your throat and it risks entering the lungs. Pressure applied should lessen the blood flow.  _

Doesn’t leaning forward make it worse? 

_ Gravitation in either case makes it an unpleasant experience. _

Lovely. 

The tram takes off down the hall, set for the Hyperion and the residential quarters. There are several stops added to the Tram, but fortunately none are being used as of right now. They really were running a skeleton crew in the Nexus for all those months. 

Scott sits beside you, a personal tissue dispenser as he keeps an eye on you. Otherwise there’s just the thrum of the lift and Sara tapping away at her omni-tool. You just keep your nose clogged and close your eyes to ease the headache. 

“We’re here.” Scott murmurs beside you, just as the announcer over the tram speakers says; “ _ Arriving at - Hyperion Habitation deck _ .” 

“Great.” You say, standing and discarding your old tissue to replace it with a new one. “I think SAM needed me in there alone. Pathfinder stuff apparently.” 

Sara scoffs a bit, but doesn’t protest and Scott just shrugs as you look at him. 

“If it’s Pathfinder stuff we won’t pressure it yanno.” Scotts says, “We know dad was like a clamp with it. So it wouldn’t be weird if SAM is the same. But we’re here if you need to talk.” 

“I guess.” You mutter, then straightening to look at your siblings - it still made you uneasy with how little you knew of them, but still to be as comfortable with them as you are. “I promise not to keep stuff from you though. Not if I can help it.” 

Sara reaches out to pat you on the shoulder, shaking her head. “It’s okay you know. There’s a lot of shit going down right now so we get that you can’t tell us everything. I bet dad even would’ve tried to keep stuff from mom if he could.” 

Scott scoffs to your side, “Like he could. She knew him too well for him to be able to hide anything.”

“Yeah.” Sara says, rolling her eyes at her brother. “Point is, don’t stress it too much. We’ll stick to you, like a krogan on a thresher maw.” 

“That’s weird.” 

“It gets the point across.” 

“It’s still weird. Have you seen those things?” 

“A metaphor doesn’t have to be nice.” 

“They don’t have to be as morbid as possible either.” 

“Picky, the lot of you!” Sara exclaims, throwing up her hands. Though she’s smiling. “In any case, don’t worry too much, ‘bit, even if you have to keep some stuff back we trust you to tell us anything important.” 

“Alright.” You nod, stuffing a fresh tissue up your nostril to try and quench the blood. 

Looking absolutely like the wreck you feel you should, with blood staining your hands and general posture shot to hell, you make your way through the groups of people, approaching the pathfinder’s quarters, and by extension, SAM-node. 

You smile at the twins as you go inside, Sara shoots you a wink and Scott a pat on the back as the doors open and they instead continue towards the pathfinders quarters. 

* * *

Your smile fades as the doors slide shut behind you, encasing you in the glow from SAM-node and little else as you step forward to face the terminal. 

“Hello SAM.” You say, sighing as you move over to sit down, your back against the side of the terminal so you can look up at SAM. 

“ _ Greetings Ryder. _ ” 

You lean backwards, sighing. “No great news I would guess?” 

“ _ No. _ ” Says SAM, silent for a moment before you hear him speak again - was that hesitance? “ _ I’m afraid that with you already aware of our current situation that I can do little to remedy it. _ ” 

Unstopping your nose, you see that it no longer bleeds and instead lean your head back to rest it against the cool side of the terminal. The headache has faded to a dull thud, prevalent but not painful. 

What caused the headache though? 

“ _ I cannot say, however, as I theorized earlier, it may be related to the displacement of your memories. Though as you need to recall the causes and consequences of certain actions, you cannot limit this and I would not advice against it either. _ ” SAM says, having seemingly read it from your mind. “ _ I will tell you that I cannot dive too deeply into either of your recalled pasts and thusly it seems to be a mental block that ascends to more than something I can bypass without causing you harm. _ ” 

“You know, this seems scarily close to how Alec had laid blocks in the game.” 

“ _ Yes. I am aware of the similarities. _ ” 

“Do you think I’ll then also see a distant shine and think ‘hey that must be a memory, lets just mosey on over there and pick it up and hope for the best’?” 

“ _ No. From the response your body has to this, it may be related to how much stress your body can handle. Perhaps sorting out your situation and pursuing it in a calmer environment would lead to a less harmful response. _ ” 

Huffing, you open your eyes, squinting up against the light emitted by SAM. As though a response, the light dims. “I don’t know SAM.” 

And that’s about a lot of things. 

“ _ The stress that is placed on your psyche at present seems to be too much Ryder. I would advise you to attempt to put your displacement from your mind - until you’re settled in the role of pathfinder. _ ” 

You suddenly feel a lot like crying. A shaky intake of breath doesn’t seem to help that too much, but you just place a hand over your eyes as you lean back against the terminal. “Do I really have to? Can’t this just be a really bad dream?” 

SAM is silent. Only the whirring in the distance of the hyperions systems lulling into the silence as you sit there. 

You feel a whole lot like shit, considering a whole lot of tough shit that will have to be taken care of and how you’re supposed to be a pathfinder.  _ Their pathfinder _ . 

Your mind runs in little negative circles for a while. But since this isn’t a dream, and you’re actually stuck with this situation where you’re the eye of the shitstorm across a galaxy, you put on your grown-ass pants and breathe until you’re calmer. 

Finally, SAM speaks. “ _ I can assimilate and categorize the memories present so you may feel less conflicted when either appears. As I would have with Alec’s memories, however they are not present as they were not added to my knowledge along with the transfer. _ ” 

“Great.” You say, slightly choked but recovering, “One less thing to rattle around my head.” 

You stand, and as you’re about to leave, SAM says one last thing. 

“ _ Ryder. Despite your personal belief towards Alec’s coma. I can add the fact that with your intervention, you have already prevented the worst-case scenario and saved his life. _ ” 

You stop. “I don’t think they’re that different in the end SAM.” 

You can’t make yourself turn around, SAM’s voice the same as always - he’s not that developed at this stage to start using varying tones in his projected way of speaking - but despite that you get the feeling that he’s, grateful? 

“ _ I will agree to disagree on that. _ ” 

When did he learn that?

* * *

Despite SAM’s unexpected response, you still exit the room in, relative, calm. 

There’s still a lot of shit that needs to be taken care of, but they can all be started with you finally going down to the docking bay and taking a look at the ship. 

But first, you have to tow the twins with you. As you doubt they would be pleased if you went ahead without them. Even to speed up the process, Sara has one plan in mind, and it includes her picking up both you and Scott and then launching all three of you ahead with her biotics to quickly make it to the tram. 

You don’t really want to try and be propelled by physic-breaking quantum pseudo-magic anything soon. So you instead just book it really quickly ahead of the others in the vain hope that Sara will see it as a challenge and not just use her biotics to arrive ahead of you anyway. 

Well, the eagerness shown by the pathfinder-team seems to leave a few smiles in your wake, as Scott overtakes both of you by a mile and is followed by plenty of cursing and jeers from both Sara and you as you book it after. He reaches it first of course, showcasing by posing in front of the terminal to summon the tram with plenty of flexing and, of course - a good set of taunting. 

It’s hard not to smile with the energy these two portray. You always liked people who could laugh in a tough situation. 

You summon the tram before Sara manages much more than to monkeyclimb Scott and mock that even if he can outrun her, he will never be able to throw a man like her - such as she was just about to demonstrate, biotics humming around her in a lighthearted threat. Or, you hope it was lighthearted, you get the gist that being the last tacked on after those two all your life hasn’t been easy. 

Fortunately, the tram arrives without one further bone-breaking incident. And as you’re just about to send it to the docking bay to let you step ahead, Cora arrives, out of breath as well. 

“Seems like you all heard. Ready to see what Tann gave us?” Cora asks, walking up to your side and giving you a - friendly though somewhat stiff - nod. 

“Yes!” Scott says, having been sitting a couple feet away. “I hope it has a bathtub.” 

“Or maybe a proper oven?” Sara tacks on. 

“I’d just like a proper soak still.” Scott fakes a shiver, “I feel like I’ve got dirt on my dirt after these past few days.” 

“I think you can hope for a shower if nothing else.” Cora says, opening her omnitool. “I heard it’s something special.” 

Sara may have let out a sound of glee at that statement, though you think it may just be your headache that’s ringing in your head again. It’s that high a tone. 

Cora can’t help but grin at that and speaks to whoever is on the other end of her call. “Pathfinder team en route. How’s the ship?” 

“In final checks and looking great.” comes a voice. One that you recognize but don’t know. 

Vetra. 

Oh. Hm. Right, she is part of the crew that’s set to prep the ship. Though she may just have paid herself onto the crew so that she could be the one to greet the pathfinder and the team with a favor of some kind. You’re not one-hundred on that actually. You didn’t pay that much attention. 

Though remembering her, you feel yourself flush, just slightly, and you sheepily scratch at your neck whilst you hear another voice in your head. 

_ I was not aware that the game had been one where you could romantically involve yourself with others.  _

It hadn’t! Or more like, it wasn’t the main goal but just one option of many others and wow would you not like to think on this when almost every crewmember introduced from now on out will be, without a doubt, people you’ve ‘dated’ before. 

Ok so you may have gone and tried a few routes but please you-don’t-want-to-think-this-over right now. 

That last thought was such a squibble of words that even SAM seems to have issues registering the meaning for a few seconds. 

_ Acknowledged Ryder. I will not mention it whilst you are in the company of others. At the moment your core temperature has raised and your outward appearance has been altered by blood vessels expanding under the outward layer of skin.  _

That’s great. Can you make it stop? 

_ I would like to limit my adjustments to your physical state. In this case your embarrassment is easily remedied.  _

Alright. How? 

_ Keep your focus on the imminent experience.  _

That doesn’t really help at the moment, but thanks. You mutter, in your head, because that makes a great deal of sense to have an argument with an AI within your own head. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out stress can cause depression-like symptoms so yeah, also keep inside and wash your dang hands! 
> 
> Obligatory reminder that any complainers will be directed to our in-house security, snowsheba, and forced to recite the history of the complainer's current country of habitation before being tomato'd and kicked out of the theater. your comedic act will not be compensated.


	6. Speeding off (without seatbelts)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are taken care of, missions gets going, and the tempest is much larger than anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lockdown has made me lose all sense of time, so here's a belated chapter!

“We won’t be long.” Cora says, breaking you out of your mental back-and-forth with the AI. 

You nod at her and take a seat next to Sara. “It’s going pretty quick all of a sudden. Right?” 

“You can say that.” Cora agrees, and then sits down across from you. “It’s only been about half a day since the Hyperion landed. Things have been moving fast.” 

“We’re riding on hope right now.” Scott says, sitting beside Cora. “We need to be out there before they realize that we’re not an instant fix to their problems.” 

“Yeah.” You straighten in your seat, stretching slightly to ease worn muscles. “Seems like it’ll just be us out there. Making it up as we go.” 

Cora laughs a little at that, tapping your leg with her foot. “We used to call that “tactical improvisation”.” 

“Well whichever it’ll be, I heard that we’ll be doing it in style.” Says Scott, smiling and almost brimming with energy. 

“I just really hope that they’ll have a good kitchen in there.” Sara says from beside you, “I could spend ages in there if they do. Dextro stuff is fun experimenting on.” 

* * *

You arrive, not in splendor or anything. However there is a hush over the docking bay as you exit. People gather from all around the nexus and hyperion to watch as their hope lands. 

And is she stunningly beautiful. 

“They call her the  _ Tempest. _ ” Cora remarks from beside you, in similar awe as everyone else. 

She’s a true virtue of design, and also seems a lot bigger than what the game had made her out to be. You feel glee bubbling in your chest as she gently approaches the landing pad and does so with grace. 

The Tempest looks to be made yesterday and not over six hundred years back, gleaming in the artificial light cast over the bay. 

You all just stand there for a minute, then Sara drives an elbow into your side and tilts her head toward the ship. “Come on, go have a closer look.” 

“You can come with, you know.” You say, puzzled. 

“I know but this is a pathfinderly thing. You should get to see her first!” Sara insists, grabbing onto Scott, who is nodding along. “We’ll be behind you, just a bit, so you can go and do your thing.” 

“Ookay?” You turn back toward the ship and then look around for the quickest path down. Hah,  _ pathfinder. _

Making your way towards the ship, you see the ground-crew start to load crates and boxes of various sizes into the Tempest. 

One figure in particular catches your eye, instructing others and seemingly having taken the lead. You’re almost there when you hear the turian chastise someone for having overloaded their arms and grabs the top crates to carry them inside as well. 

You stand a bit to the side, kind of watching everything go by before the turian makes her way back outside. Black sclera surrounding a deep green iris locks onto you and as she walks toward you, she seems to carry herself with a grace similar to that of a cat. 

“So, you’re the one making everything happen.” She says, stopping a distance away that you don’t have to crane your head back to meet her eyes. 

Turians really are quite a bit taller than what you remember. Though they all seem to move so gracefully that you wouldn’t guess that most of their outer structure resembles hard bone. 

“I’m Vetra. Vetra Nyx.” Vetra finally says, “Initiative wrangler, provisioner, gunner, and about everything in between you can think of.” 

“I’m pretty sure you know who I am then.” You say a slight smile on your lip as you look up at her. Leaning back on your heels as you watch the crowd move by out of the corner of your eye. “Surprise Pathfinder, sniper and about as ready to get going as you seem to be.” You tack that last bit on as you notice Cora and the others approach. 

Vetra lets out a small laugh at your tone. “I can take a guess at you already having figured out that you won’t be leaving here without a good push.” 

“I figured that much from my talk with the higher ups. Tann might’ve permitted me to leave, but I doubt Allison thinks the same.” 

“You’re right on that.” 

“What do you suppose I can do to remedy that?” You ask, shooting a wink back at where Cora, Sara and Scott have joined up behind you. Scott blows you a kiss and Sara winks back, whilst Cora just sighs. 

“Leave it to me for now.” Vetra says, shooting a glance at the others before returning her attention back to you. “I know who to talk to.” 

Speaking of the devil, the overseer of provisions for the Tempest just steps down onto the lower levels, red in the head and about to blow the situation way out of proportion. Vetra expertly steps over to calm and like persuade him, into letting the orders disappear without being approved somewhere down the line. 

You doubt you could even hold a candle to Vetra in a situation like this. 

When she returns, you give her an appreciative smile. “Smooth.” 

Vetra gives what you can equal to a shrug - not as pronounced as on a human and her mandibles flare to the sides in what seems to be properly acted out modesty. “Part of the job,” She says, waving you along to follow her onto the Tempest. “Right now you need someone to tear down obstacles, not build more.” 

“I can appreciate that.” You say, noticing that the others aren’t following. Letting you have the first look around still? Seems to be. 

“Honestly? It’s great that we finally have somebody who cares about doing stuff and doesn’t just sit around and talk about it.” Vetra says, standing at the top of the ramp leading inside. “We’ve waited fourteen months for this, it’s about time we got going.” 

“Did none of the other arks really reach here?” You ask, half because you know the answer, if not from your memories, then from the information you got from Kesh. “We were delayed by something and have only been up for a few days now.” 

“Might be that something similar happened.” Vetra says, leading inside as you reach her and then lessens her pace to let you have a look around. “Honestly? I wouldn’t bet on it.” 

You’re staring in awe, with people running about and in and out of rooms, stocking everything up and checking and double checking and triple checking everything. The buzz of activity almost makes your head spin, though Vetra leads you further inside. 

“Everything’s state-of-the-art. You’ve got labs, sensors, exploration gear, all the best of the best. Plus her crew of course.” Vetra says, just as you’re about to pass Lexi. 

You’re rather overwhelmed, so you can only shoot her a smile as Lexi nods in return, busy checking something on her omni tool as she walks into one of the side-rooms. 

Vetra notices your general bewilderment, so as you’re about to go the wrong way, she taps you on the shoulder and leads you over to where the elevator platform is. “Up here’s the engine core, set behind a soundproof wall and casing. It’s based on the ODSY drive that also powers the Nexus.” 

A human man, standing to the side, catches on that last bit and huffs, “It runs a hell of a lot quieter though.” 

As you both pass him by, Vetra tilts her head minutely at him as he returns his attention back to the datapad in his hands. “That’s Gil Brody, part of the crew and your engineer, mechanic and an expert in any situation that includes a wrench.” 

“A pleasure!” Gil yells from behind you, making you smile. 

Vetra doesn’t respond, though you notice her attention flickering for a moment back to the mechanic and you have a feeling that they may know each other already. Well considering the flamboyant introduction and the casual comments shot between then, it wouldn’t be a surprise. 

From the bridge, you enter through a set of double doors to a much larger and much more open room. In here, there is a large hologram set up of the nexus in the middle of the table as a couple of people are fiddling with a row of terminals along the sides. You spot one guy submerged beneath and inside an opening in the panel, likely checking the wiring. 

Here people are milling about, about as busy as a hive to get everything ready and set for launch. Somebody steps down the stairs behind you as Vetra raises a hand in a gesture that draws attention to the room at large. 

“This is the research room. There’s space for upgrading equipment, gathering intel, examining findings -” Her sentence is cut off by a sudden announcement that resounds over the speakers. 

“ _ Router engaged. Securing connection to Tempest _ .” SAM says, likely purposefully calling attention to his presence in the entire ship. 

Vetra gives you an apologetic nod for stopping, though she turns to greet the person that was descending the stairs. “This is Suvi Anwar, our science officer and the one that will be overseeing almost everything in here.” 

“Welcome aboard SAM.” Suvi looks slightly disheveled, hair unruly and seems to have something vaguely oily smeared over one cheek as she walks past you with a folder tucked under one of her arms. “And Pathfinder, of course.” she hurries off in the opposite direction. 

“She’s been busy getting everything stocked for ground-work since you landed.” Vetra says, leading you up the stairs that Suvi had come from. “I think she’s been withering.” 

“If you’ve been stuck for fourteen months, I think I can understand why.” You say, walking over to the edge of the railing that lines the second floor of the research room. “This is a lot roomier than I thought it would be.” 

“Got to have space for everyone to get together, but also have their own privacy.” Vetra walks up beside you, a step behind as she stops and likely takes note of you contemplating the interior. “She’s all yours. She’s light, stealthy, and the fastest ship of her class. Even with a skeleton crew, you can keep her up and running without a problem.” 

You’re silent, staring over the hustle and bustle and thinking. Vetra doesn’t remark further, though she stays beside you for a time. Up until Sara and Scott appear. Cora likely broke off from the group down by the cargo bay to inspect everything. 

However, the twins almost shoot themselves forward with their momentum as they enter the room, staring and throwing exclamations to each other about, probably, everything they deem the slightest bit fascinating. 

A relay-security and a prothean artifact pursuer, both let onto a ship that is both designed to withstand whatever difficulties may lie in the new world as well as allow the passengers to reach foreign civilizations. 

As Vetra catches on to who is making such a ruckus, she steps up beside you and nods toward the duo. “The best part is yet to come. But I’ll let you have some time to take it all in. When you’re ready to fly and everything is hopefully set up, come to the bridge. Our Pilot should have everything good to go.” 

“Thanks, Vetra.” You say, turning to face her. Shooting her a grateful smile. “I mean it.” 

“Then don’t keep me waiting too long.” Vetra says jokingly, mandibles flickering open and up as she gives you a nod before leaving. You think that was a cheeky smile. 

* * *

You stay upstairs for a bit, just watching everything go by. After a while Scott and Sara had joined up with you and sat on the couch lining one side of the platform, chatting more calmly now that they’ve had a good look around the ship. You notice the crowd begin to shrink and fewer and fewer people are making their way into the corridors of the ship. 

Seems like the right time to see if Kallo is set up. 

You stretch, fingers intertwined and lifted above your head before finally bending forward to try and touch your toes. You can, though you’ve never before been able to do it. Straightening from your position and where you’ve been leaning against the railing, you wince when you feel your spine crack. 

You need a good night's sleep. 

Not that you’re going to get it anytime soon. Phew. 

_ Your timing is accurate Pathfinder. According to Nexus control, they are just about to settle all procedures for the Tempest. _

That’s great. 

Taking a minute to look around once more, the deck is basically deserted and Sara is asleep on one of the circular couches that line the upper level where you are. Scott is nowhere to be found right now. 

Hey SAM. 

_ What can I help you with Ryder?  _

Do you know where they might store extra blankets? 

_ Yes.  _

SAM guides you to crouch down beside the couch and pull out a drawer where there are blankets a-plenty in it. You pick out two and lay one beneath Sara’s head as a makeshift pillow and throw the other over her to keep her comfortable. With that done, you’re careful to keep quiet walking down the stairs to the lower floor and across the bridge leading to the front of the ship. 

Somebody might wake Sara up later regardless, but for now, you let her rest. She’s likely as exhausted as you feel. 

* * *

Stepping onto the bridge, you can’t help but feel awe for the design. With glass covering everything out the front of the ship, you can get a full view of everything happening down on the bay the height making it seem like everyone is moving around like an anthill. 

“Ah, time for introductions.” You hear a voice coming from one of the seats in front and rising from it is a slightly stocky salarian - in comparison to Tann, who has been your first real look at this species so you don’t really know what counts as stocky - who already has his hand reached out to shake yours. A very human gesture. 

“You must be the Pathfinder. Kallo Jath. A pleasure to be here - and to meet you of course.” 

“Likewise.” You say, shaking his hand. 

“I’ll be piloting the Tempest under your orders. With my own experience assembling it, I can guarantee it is quite a ship! But, it will take a Pathfinder’s guidance to see us through Heleus.” 

“I’ll strive not to disappoint then.” You say, giving Kallo a nod. “I’m new to this - being Pathfinder and commanding a ship.” And about everything else between here and back in the milky way, but you don’t say that out loud. 

“You’ll be fine. Perfection is only found through failure. As for the ship, I will do my best to help. I knew the Tempest when she was just a Blueprint.” Kallo gestures for you to step forward, still talking. 

“I tested her earliest prototypes. And with us finally following behind a Pathfinder, I’m itching to see her finally fly.” As expected from salarians, Kallo speaks with an efficiency that strikes you as a method to save time and get moving with whatever tasks have to be done. Likely a trait that follows a species with only a third the lifespan of humans. 

The panel at the front rises, displaying numerous smaller screens and buttons that you have no idea what to do with. 

Turning to Kallo you give him a one-shouldered shrug, finger pointing towards the display. As you feel just as lost as any other step along this odd path. “Uhm, so how do I?” 

Kallo, thankfully, just instructs you to swipe your hand forwards, letting you get a feel for it as you summon holographic interfaces to various catalogued worlds. This is all so high-tech, yet, so simple that it blows your mind. 

Spending some time fiddling with the sensitivity and controls with the assistance of Kallo, you don’t notice that people have entered the bridge. 

“So I just dismiss it like this?” You ask and do a downwards swipe with two fingers, making the picture you were looking at fade and disappear.

“Yes. Now you will only have to recall the files log and your implant will react to it, or you can have SAM assist with it.” Kallo confirms, nodding along. “You have time to get used to it Ryder, don’t fret.” 

“Of course.” You hear a voice coming from behind you. “It’s designed for a Pathfinder. Optimized, even.” 

Turning around, you see that Cora is standing a few metres behind, arms crossed as everyone else is also watching your interaction. Vetra enters just as you were about to reply to Cora, rendering your words void on your tongue. 

The turian takes a look around the bridge whilst speaking. “Everything is ready and set. We’re only waiting for your order.” Then, with something you can classify as an excited grin, with the mandibles raised and her mouth quirked upwards with her eyes positively shining. “Are  _ you _ ready?” 

“How could anybody be ready for this?” Liam remarks, stepping forward to clasp Vetra’s shoulder. It’s a little comical with how high he has to reach. 

You shrug, locking your hands behind your back as you tilt your weight onto your heels. Looking at all of them, they are awaiting your word. 

A shudder rises up your spine from the eyes on you. Everyone depends on the Pathfinder being successful and you’ll at least have one upper hand if nothing else. You try to steel yourself with this knowledge, eyes fluttering between the different crew members as you think. 

Finally, you take in a deep breath, squaring your shoulders and shoving your doubts deep beneath your ribcage as not to let it cloud your head. This moment, this moment alone is important, for right now, you can’t run.

“Risks are unavoidable, we know this.” You say whilst your eyes are meeting Cora’s. “But we accepted the risks the moment we started our journey to a new galaxy.” 

You didn’t actually, you were just dropped into this, blank. 

“So we’ll do our best, as we always have, from here on out.” 

Even if you know what’s about to happen. 

“That’s all we can do.” 

Your anxiety boils beneath your skin. You shove it down harder. 

“Let’s set off.” 

* * *

The first thing you do as they all disperse, is to breathe a sigh of relief. There is a lot of commotion around you, with Cora and Kallo talking back and forth with the Nexus. Suvi is checking in with Lexi and it seems that everyone else has taken the cue to return to whatever work they were focusing on before your little impromptu speech. 

“Right, great.” You murmur, stepping back forward to fiddle with the screen, your hand shaking just slightly. “Just gotta go to Eos, right?” 

“That is correct.” Kallos agrees from his seat to your right. “The time to get there will be approximately a couple hours or so, depending on Gil having finished those repairs that were needed.” 

“They’re finished alright.” A voice speaks over the small comm on Kallo’s console. “Don’t start a bad rep with me Kallo. I  _ know _ those changes were necessary before takeoff.” 

“I’ll agree when I can record a sufficient change in her speed.” Kallo huffs. Tapping a button once to turn off the comm. “Apologies Ryder, I would turn to speak eye-to-eye. But the Tempest is still just stretching her wings, or so to speak.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” You say, stepping a little closer to make it easier for him to keep you in the corner of his eye. 

“But it’s exhilarating isn’t it? Being on the bridge of your very own ship. The first Pathfinder to start exploring the new galaxy.”

“I guess I could feel a little more excited if half of the Nexus probably wasn’t already out there.” 

“Indeed so, but none of them have a ship quite like the Tempest.” Kallo shrugs, eyes still flickering over various screens and what seems to be a gathering of measurements. Way too many numbers for you to even think about managing.

“That is true, and you said you had a hand in designing her? Being a test pilot and knowing her from the get-go? Did any of the team otherwise make it here?” 

“No. I was the only one.” Sighing, Kallo closes his eyes for a moment before turning his attention back to his screens. “We were close, you could say. Everyone worked so long and hard to see the ship that will come to carry a Pathfinder become real. It’s hard not to become some sort of - Family.” 

He reaches out to touch one of the screens, locking onto a specific line before letting it go with a swipe of his finger. Kallo’s attention never strays from the conversation despite his iron focus on everything going on. 

“How come?” You do know this. But hearing it from Kallo feels like it's more real, like the people that spent countless hours on the ship you’re standing in become an actual part of the Tempest. 

“That no others joined? Simply because I was one of the few that would have a chance to see her off.” He fingers fly over a row of numbers, making adjustments for a moment while you stare out the front, watching the starry universe pass by. 

After a moment, Kallo sighs and leans back into his chair. “Apologies Ryder, there seems to be several small fluctuations caused by the scourge that has branched out and affected our planned paths. I may not be able to fully focus on our conversation at hand.” 

“It’s fine Kallo.” You say, nodding as he turns to you, giving you a nod. “If my instincts are right I think we’ve got plenty of time to talk later.” 

* * *

Stepping back out of the cockpit of the ship, you catch Liam standing above a terminal in the middle of the room, having pulled up what looks to be several files. 

“Hey, Pathfinder. How’re you doing?” 

You stop for a moment, momentarily off-balance with him using your title. He’d never done so before, or if he had, it had not sounded that formal. 

Though, this isn’t a time to feel disappointed. Now there are military structures to respect and you’d suddenly landed in one that outlines that Liam has to greet you with your rank. So you pull some more energy into your pose and step up beside him. 

Maybe later you’ll join Sara in taking a nap. Sounds like a good idea. 

“Is it Pathfinder now, Liam?” You say, leaning your hip against the console he’s working on. 

As Liam turns to look at you, he does look a little apologetic. “I didn’t know if you being in charge changed things.” Swiping away about half of the files he had up, he turns to you. “Alec was pretty strict on it, except with you guys of course.” 

“Ryder is fine Liam.” You reassure him, hand grasping onto the other bicep, your eyes stray to the text littering the screens. “Even the militia can’t complain if you call me by my last name if you’ve got permission. Save the Pathfinder stuff for the public. On missions and here, I’m not the Pathfinder.” 

Liam smiles at that, a hesitant thing, but it’s there. “Eh, I don’t know if I can agree with that last bit. But sure, I’ll drop the title when the big shots aren’t around.” 

“Thanks Liam.” You nod, free hand coming up to rub at your eye. “Things have been moving very quickly all of a sudden. Be ready for Helios, it should be pretty bad there.”

“Will do.” Liam points at the screens, “and, speaking of Eos. That’s what I’m looking through. With the hell that’s been going on with the failed outposts. We can try and cross-reference the issues between the two and see where they started to fail. We’ll need a safe location for the civilians but also with near resources, so the scans they’ve taken will be a good place to start.” 

You have little knowledge of something this serious, but you suppose you’ll have to learn on the move. This could be a good way of getting some groundwork done. You’ll just have to go without some sleep for a while longer. “Sounds great. What do you have so far?” 

With Liam’s education in special ops as well as his experience in civilian training, he has quite a few good pointers as to what could make and break an outpost. From a defensible aspect anyways. With the limited scans of the planet outside of the immediate areas, neither of you can get a good grasp of the resources available. 

You chatter back and forth for about an hour or so, maybe a little more before somebody else enters the room. 

“I can’t see anything reoccuring in the fauna outside of those aggressive bugs that sometimes came and chewed on the pylons holding up the atmosphere for the outposts.” Your hair is ruffled from you running your fingers through it in frustration and Liam has shucked his gloves too.

“I can’t either, but that doesn’t make any sense.” Says Liam, “I mean, there’s probably adhi around but they’re only scouted further away from the bases.” 

“It’s just -” You start and then cut off as you see that Cora has entered the room. You had not hear the doors open and close, but that is not unexpected since you were both rapid-firing ideas and arguments. “Oh, hey, Cora.” 

“Pathfinder.” She nods, voice neutral. “Finding everything well?” 

You scratch at your temple, fingers hesitating before moving up to run through your hair nervously. “It wouldn’t be the word I’d use but, yeah. I’m figuring it out.” 

Liam is typing something on the console behind you, so he doesn’t seem to want to butt into your conversation. Though you’d rather like it, considering you feel so awkward with Cora just staring at you. 

Cora then suddenly looks up, catching somebody entering the room from the opposite end of where you’re standing. She forces her posture to ease somewhat, sighing as she looks back at you. “Good. If you need any help, you can find me by the bridge.” 

And with that, she walks out and past Suvi, who had just entered the room together with Vetra. Though the turian just says something to Suvi before exiting in the direction of the cargo bay. 

“Oh hi!” Suvi says, walking over to the two of you. “SAM mentioned that you two were looking at scans from Eos and having some troubles.” 

“That’s putting it mildly.” Liam winces, dragging up the file on the fauna that you were looking at a minute ago.

You shrug, tapping a knuckle gently against Liam’s shoulder. “It’s not like we expected to find a solution now. Maybe we’re not looking at it right.” 

“Maybe.” Liam echoes, straightening his spine and rubbing his neck as he turns to you and Suvi. “You were Suvi, right? Science team?” 

“Yes. Suvi Anwar.” Suvi then proceeds to shake both your and Liam’s hands in greeting. Then she steps forward to seeing what files you had problems with. “I’m working as a liaison between the Pathfinder and the science team back on the Nexus, so I do have experience with the data from Eos and even had my hands on some samples from down there.” 

“How’s it looking?” You can’t help but ask, half-knowing the answer from what you can remember. 

“Bad.” Yeah, there it is. “But not impossible. I mean, with our technology, we can say that little is impossible, including terraforming a planet.” Alright, that’s true. They might have experimented with that back in the Milky Way. Though your brain can’t come up with any information from your scattered memories that can deny or confirm. 

“It just needs the right approach.” Suvi continues, leaning over the console to squint at one particular file. “I’ve read this one, but it’s not adding up to what it should. I think somebody changed it. It’s not accurate anymore.” 

You’re about as experienced as your hour talking with Liam has made you, so you just keep quiet as Suvi taps away on the console for a few minutes. 

Seeming satisfied with the result, she exits the file and turns back to you and Liam. “But if you’re interested, I’ve written an analysis of the bacteria and microfauna of Heleus data and samples. I can have it sent to you if you want.” 

“Sure,” You give her a smile. “Don’t fault me if I’ll be coming with questions.” 

“Ah, that’s no problem Pathfinder. Sixty pages is barely a summary, so I would understand if there are holes and things it may gloss over.” 

Liam scratches at the bridge of his nose beside you, “I can imagine there’s things living on the microscopic scale on Eos, but I don’t know how to use it for a settlement.” 

Suvi starts to discuss how it’s applicable, just when SAM catches your attention. 

_ Ryder. I’ve received a request from Doctor Pterro for your presence in the medical bay before landing on Eos.  _

Got it. How’s the crew looking? 

_ Everyone is working on preparing for your arrival on Eos.  _

Great. 

_ Anything you need me to make a note of Ryder?  _

Not that you can remember right now, no. You don’t think there’s anything happening there we can prepare for before we land. 

_ Affirmative. _

With your attention away, you haven’t been following Liam and Suvi’s conversation. Though as you draw your attention back to it, you see that the pair is both inspecting different files, though Suvi shoots you a smile when you look in her direction. “You looked so focused there Ryder, Anything exciting?” 

Ah, right. Talking to SAM directly isn’t a normal thing, maybe you should use your omni-tool next time as not to rouse too much suspicion about how connected SAM is to your implant. 

Giving her a smile back, you run a hand through your hair, wincing at the grease you can feel on your fingers. You don’t remember where you put your gloves. “Yeah, just some things to think about. Sorry if I zoned out there.” 

“That’s understandable. Though if you want, we can move our discussion somewhere we can sit?” Suvi says, tapping at a couple of files and dismissing them before she shakes her head. “Looks like the files got shuffled around when the transfer to the Tempest was happening. I’ll have a look at it while we’re in transit.” 

“I’ll take you up on your offer some other time.” You say, “I think I’m overdue a check in at the medbay.”

Waving goodbye, you walk out toward the bridge, taking the ladder down to the second level. 

There are a few more rooms than the game showed, likely because the tight bunking isn’t as realistic with the chance of races other than humans staying here. Though they are fortunately all marked with a simple text over each door, so it’s easy to find out which door leads to the medbay. 

Tapping the console beside the door, they slide open seamlessly and quietly as you step inside. To one side, standing before a screen littered with what you could only guess be medical records, is Lexi. 

“Hi Lexi.” You say, walking over to her as she turns around to face you. “SAM said you needed me?” 

“Yes,” She says, gesturing for you to take a seat on one of the beds. “I am now the field medic for the pathfinder team, since Harry has decided to spend his time taking care of your father instead.” She’s fiddling with something that you can’t see, 

Sitting down, you take a moment to think of a reply, when suddenly Lexi is lifting your arm, a swap pressing down on your skin a moment before a needle plunges into the bend of your elbow, drawing until the syringe is half filled. “Ow! I’d like a warning next time, doctor!” 

“Sorry! Hold still for a moment.” 

“You know, I’m not against you coming and joining the team, but I’d like it if you said if you’re about to stab me.” Your words could be taken as a serious statement, if not for the slight laugh in your voice. Seeing her as frazzled as you feel is slightly humorous, considering that all your previous conversations with her have been slightly stilted with how serious she is about her work. “Also, I remember you having a gentler touch.” 

“It’s the nerves, I think.” Lexi says, retracting the syringe to put a wad of synthetic cotton onto the area. “Still trying to get my bearings. Waking up colonists is very different from having to be ready to treat the pathfinder’s team.” 

Pressing your other hand down against the swab of cotton despite the lack of sting from the wound, you chuckle a bit. “I would say something about me not being in better hands, however -”

“I just stabbed you,” Lexi finishes, a tired smile on her face as well as she deposits the needle and sets the sample to the side. “Which I would like to apologize about.”

“Eh,” You lift the swab, noticing that the wound is already closed - odd. “We all have off days.” 

Lexi is quiet for a few moments, typing something on her omni-tool before she speaks again. “I never imagined I would be sent for field work so quickly. I hoped for it, of course, but now I at least have a good chance of studying alien species firsthand.” 

“Uhm,” You fold your leg over the other, leaning forward as Lexi is still bustling about. “Do you mean the kett or?” 

“Any species, my PhD is in alien physiology, so just getting a kett corpse on board would be great for studying their anatomy. A live sample would be better of course,” She shrugs, “But I can’t be greedy.” 

Stepping up in front of you, Lexi seems to activate her omni-tool to do another scan of your body, “My thesis on Krogan virility and aggression is what got me on the Hyperion in the first place, so to expand on it I would like to see if any species here display the same kind of evolution.” 

“I guess,” You say, now resting your head on your propped up hand. “The kett did have some sort of bone-like build that reminds me of the bump that krogans have.” 

“Yes indeed,” Lexi says, “But I think we’ll have to leave this until I can get my hands on a subject - or so to speak, to see if there are similarities. Or even give us an insight into their weaknesses or suchlike.”

“That would be great, if that’s true.” You scratch at your chin, thinking. “It’s not my speciality, so I will leave that in your capable hands. Though if we have some time down the line, and a fresh corpse for you, we can talk more about it.” 

“Sounds like a plan.” Lexi agrees, walking back over to her table and transferring something onto the screens. “Depending on how Eos turns out, we’ll have time to talk.” 

That was the cue for you to leave, with a wave to the busy doctor, you walk back out of the medbay. You can feel a strain around your spine and try to stretch to ease it a little. 

Now, what to do until you’re touching down? Maybe go and see if any of the strike teams that Kandros had given you access to were finished. 

A yawn makes your jaw ache as you can feel tears gather at the corners of your eyes as you try and shake off the sleepiness. Or maybe a small nap will have to do before the Tempest reaches Eos. It would put off a few of the conversations you were planning on having, but landing exhausted and unfocused wasn’t the best idea. 

Fortunately, you’re not far away from the Pathfinder’s quarters. They were literally placed below the bridge of the ship, at the end of the hallway you were standing in. Time to get some rest for the wicked. 

The door slides open as smoothly as you take a look inside. It is rather spacious, almost ridiculously so in comparison to what you really need. Hm. Maybe you should have it made into half a movie-room instead of just having all this free space. 

A thought for another time. Now you’re just planning on passing out on the rather comfortable-looking bed that’s off to one side of the room. You take three long strides and then let yourself topple over onto its soft surface. 

“SAM?” You mumble, already horizontal on the bed and half assedly kicking off your boots. “Wake me when we’re half an hour out mmkay?” 

“ _ Acknowledged Ryder, sleep well.”  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man it's been ages, I hope you all are taking care of yourself and staying inside!
> 
> Obligatory reminder that any complainers will be directed to our in-house security, snowsheba, and forced to recite the history of the complainer's current country of habitation before being tomato'd and kicked out of the theater. your comedic act will not be compensated.


	7. New planet (New chaos)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eos. Can I say anything more?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so just a quick note, don't start shit about me not updating for a while bc I will 100% delay the chapters further if you do. 
> 
> Like this one. 
> 
> It was done a month ago. 
> 
> But one of you went and bugged me about it so another month got tacked onto it. 
> 
> (I love the rest of you tho, dw this story will continue)

You feel like you just closed your eyes, letting your mind turn a blessed black, when you hear SAM over the comms placed within your room. 

“ _ Pathfinder. We are thirty minutes from arriving on Eos. _ ”

Grumbling and complaining, you sit up on your bed, hand rubbing at one crusted eye. You’ve slept with your clothes on and barely have any blanket over your legs, and there’s a prominent silence to the room, almost pressing as you try and get your eyes back into working order. 

You’re momentarily confused as to exactly  _ where _ you are and who the fuck the Pathfinder is. You squint, making out the great tresmendous sight of the galaxy just outside your window. 

What. 

_ Oh my god.  _

Any lingering doubts that whatever you’re going to go through will be easy is shattered within the moment that you spot Eos. The planet is, in one word,  _ bleak _ . If Earth is still known as the blue planet back in the Milky Way, Eos would be the  _ sand planet _ . 

Well, red, oranges and browns, but it still looks about as inhospitable as a planet can be. Even Habitat 7 with all its issues had the promise of some flora and fauna. This just looks dead. 

You take a moment, pressing a closed fist against your forehead as you shut your eyes and count slowly to ten and back down again. It’s alright. You can do this. It’s from the story, you know how it goes. There’s a vault beneath that surface and if you do it right, you can come out of this with one settlement done. 

There’s just a  _ whole mess of things to take care of first and - _ no, no. Don’t think too far ahead. First you’ll have to touch down and find the vehicle, the, uh, the Nomad. It should be close by. So focus on getting that first. 

With a sigh, you blink the last sand out of your eyes and look around for wherever you threw your boots. 

* * *

Exiting your quarters, you find your way toward the equipment station, where you start putting on your gear from when you touched down on Habitat 7. There are scratches and a few places where it seems they’ve had to replace a part or two by the chestpiece where you got turned into a nice shishkebab, but it’s functional and it’s somewhat familiar. 

You’re having a look at your guns when somebody else enters the room. As you glance up, you see it’s Cora, already donned in her armor, though seemingly fetching her guns now. 

“Ryder,” she says in way of acknowledgement. 

“Hey Cora,” you say, slotting a piece of the suit around your shin in place. “Is everyone ready?” 

“Kallo says it will be a while yet until we will breach the atmosphere. But both Liam, Vetra and I am ready for deployment.” She hesitates for a second, enough for you to catch it. “And the twins are too.” 

You scratch at your cheek, one of the few places left uncovered as you have yet to put on your helmet. There was another thing you hadn’t considered; who would be going down with you. 

Cora is the experienced team leader that is capable of keeping her eyes out for things that you probably won’t. She’s also a biotic, which is something you’re still trying to draw the line of what is possible in your mind about, considering that you have yet to really see her properly in action. Cora would be a safe bet and also a valuable asset, and having her on the team would give her the option to share how pathfinder operations are led. 

Liam is also a great soldier and has a way with keeping a keen eye out. Also, he’s a great speaker, less tense, and already knows you prefer to keep your fighting at a distance and covers you well. As far as you can remember from Habitat 7, though, he might have some more troubles in an open terrain like this and you’ll be on the move a lot more. 

Vetra is kind of a wildcard. She’s got connections with what seems like any and everyone that has even had a chance of being on the Nexus and then some. She’s likely to ease the encounter with Drack and is also a lot more aware of the reality of the situation you are going to face, even if she hasn’t been on Eos yet. 

But then again, you don’t have to stick to only one Ryder. Since the twins are here and likely also rather experienced in the field, it might not hurt to stay as a larger group and then split off to scout. They were all chosen to be a part of the Pathfinder team, after all. 

Hmm. If you want to stick to the game’s rules and keep at a three-man squad, there are some positive and negative aspects to anyone you’ll be dragging down planetside with you. 

Oh, to hell with it. Might as well play it safe. 

Wincing when you hit a scab on your cheek, you look back at Cora as she keeps her eyes on you, expecting your order. “All three of you will be coming with me. It may be better to be in pairs to scout if there is a heavier resistance than we expect down there.” 

Cora keeps your gaze for a moment before nodding, hands clasping behind her back in a pose reminiscent of parade rest. “Acknowledged, Ryder.” There’s a pause, where she shifts her weight and looks to the side. “I assume you’re bringing the twins?” 

You halt, letting your hand fall back into your lap, intertwining your fingers to stop them from wringing in a nervous gesture. “I mean…” 

Thinking it over, it’s not as bad an idea as you thought. More people would mean more firepower and less risk of casualties. There’s also the added benefit of being able to cover more ground and perhaps even split up to cover more ground. 

You looked away as you thought, but now you return your attention back to Cora, who seems to have been watching your reactions. 

A silent sigh is released through your nose, “Yes. I believe that would be a good course of action.” Cora seems about to say something, but you continue before she can. “With a six-man team we would be better covered for any assaults and we can even split up to scout.” 

Cora just silently staring at you is uncomfortable and you swallow, drawing a deep breath. 

You feel your anxiety rattle somewhere in between your ribs, but shove it down as you keep your face neutral and tone even. 

“What is your opinion on taking charge of a secondary team Cora?” 

Cora tilts her head to one side in thought, “It isn’t a bad plan. We would have to be careful not to spread too far. But who would you be putting under my charge?” 

“Depends on the circumstances I think,” you say. “For now I think you need to take Sara and Scott.” 

She’s silent for a moment, eyes closing, and you catch a shiver of energy around her shoulders, as if shucking some tension. “Understood, anything else?” 

You hope that putting her in charge of the twins will let her trust you a bit more, or at least believe that you won’t choose the twins over her as second in command. 

Especially considering your nonexistent experience. You need her to help you work out how to give order and also how to give  _ the right orders _ . 

Ah, there’s also something else you need to say since you’re in relative privacy. 

_ I’m afraid I cannot just yet disconnect myself.  _

You thought  _ relative.  _

_ Affirmative, sarcasm detected. _

SAM not adding further commentary is the best you will get, so you just raise a hand to pinch at the bridge of your nose. 

“Cora, I know we don’t know each other super well just yet. But you knew my dad.” 

She stiffens, drawing her shoulders up. Not defiant, but uncomfortable. 

“I think…” you sigh, but push on despite the awkwardness that spurted between you at you mentioning Alec. “I think he’d like it if you dropped by, just once, maybe next time we’re back at the Nexus?” 

After a minute of intense uncomfortable silence, Cora lets the parade rest easen and folds her arms across her chest, looking at you with a slight smile. “I’ll see when we have time.” 

“Good. Great.” You really want out of this conversation, so you just give her a nod and a ‘you’re dismissed’. 

She fortunately leaves the room after that and you tuck your helmet under your arm to make your way up to the bridge. 

* * *

The reception up on the bridge is sober yet not despairing. Everyone seems a little less cheery than they did just a few hours ago. Even the twins are quiet and don’t notice your arrival as you step into the room. There is a low murmur as people are talking back and forth, taking in the dull sights of Eos. 

You chew on the inside of your cheek, nerves making you feel unbalanced and jittery as you adjust your grip on the helmet and walk up to where the Pathfinder’s console is. 

Kallo speaks on your right, mentioning something about SAM and Eos, but your blood rushes in your ears as the sunlight from the nearest star shines in the front window, cascading shadows across the planet as you near the planet, still orbiting and waiting to reach the point where you will enter the atmosphere. 

“Pathfinder?” 

Raising a hand against the rays, you squint and end up turning away to avoid the burn. “Yes?” 

Kallo’s eyes are focused on the screens despite the rays of light that casts hisform in a soft gold. “SAM has used our scanners on the surface, it seems there are similarities from Eos to Habitat 7.” 

“SAM?” you ask, wanting a clear answer. There are too many things swirling around right now, too many threads to follow, but this one, this one should be simple. 

“ _ With the far reaching scanners installed in the Tempest, as well as my data on the technology that Alec interacted with, there is a similar signal being sent from a point near site 1 on Eos. _ ”

You nod, closing your eyes for a minute as you think. “Let’s see if we can pinpoint that. That will be priority one down there -” 

Somebody clasps a hand onto your shoulder and you would have startled, if not for the several kilos worth of gear weighing you down. Turning to look, you see Liam standing beside you. “I heard a lot of people have their hopes pinned on us. Since they gave up on Eos months ago.” 

You wince. “I can’t blame them. From the reports, they saw many friends and family die down there.” 

There’s a pause where Liam stares at you, and then looks to the side, removing his hand from your shoulder to rub at his neck instead. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to prod like that. You doing okay?” 

You shrug, feeling your lips rise in an awkward kind of smile. There really are not any words that come to mind with how you’re feeling. “Not great. I know I have the training that adds up to maybe a fraction of Dad’s expertise, but it's hard to tell when it’s been a little over a few days since everything happened.” 

“I don’t think anyone knows what to expect exactly. This was known as a lost cause from what I heard, with loads of problems” Liam says. “A bit in deep waters here.” 

“Well, here’s to us not drowning,” you mutter, shifting your grip on your helmet. Kallo reports on something relating to the shields and you all keep quiet until you break atmo. 

-

It’s quiet while Kallo guides the Tempest through the clouds and angle down to land in the rugged landscape where site 1 lies. You have a few moments before it will be finished and this is the moment to announce your plans for Eos. 

Drawing a breath that rattles in your ribcage, you turn on your heel to face the room at large. 

“So, here’s the plan.” Your voice sounds a lot steadier than you hoped; it gives you the drive to continue on. “Harper, Kosta, Nyx, Scott and Sara. I’ll need you all to be a part of the forward team.” You cough, clearing your throat, settling the helmet more comfortably under your arm. “We will be a larger team than the standard Pathfinder protocol, because we already know it will be hostile territory and we’re on a tight schedule.” 

There’s an echoing  _ understood _ ringing out from every initiative member on the bridge, excluding Suvi and Kallo who are both keeping their professional façades, both keeping their attention ahead or on their work. Kallo, though, has his head tilted in your direction, act so serious that you get the feeling that he is paying attention with intent to latch onto every word that is said. It’s enough to make you release a breath of air through your nose in a semi-laugh. 

“Also, if we need to split up to cover more ground, I will leave Cora in charge of our secondary squad. This time it will be her and Sara and Scott who will be scouting, but I plan on switching it around so we all can get used to fighting alongside each other.” 

There’s a bit of shifting, but nobody seems to be against the idea. Good. You swipe your free hand in front of you. 

“Dismissed, get ready for landing.” 

* * *

The Tempest being as smooth a ride as she is, and Kallo being as capable a pilot as he is, you barely feel the ship touching ground until SAM announces over the ships speakers that you are able to lower the ramp of the cargo bay without risk. 

In the time between your orders and now, you’ve been waiting in the research room, running some last scans of the nearby environment (with help from SAM with how to interact with everything) and realizing that your thoughts of it being a dead planet were a bit wrong (well, you were pretty stricken when you saw it). It might not be the lush green and blue environment you know from earth, but there is life; various forms of fauna and plantlife, though clearly not as abundant as the ideal golden world should have been. 

Rubbing at the bridge of your nose, you remove the screen with a dismissive swipe of the hand and turn to walk to the hangar. 

Only Scott is missing from the group once you enter the room and shimmy down the ladder, with the helmet on now since you’d given the go-ahead for the ramp to be lowered, you felt a bit better since your nerves weren’t as easily readable. 

As you make your way over to the group, you hear the sound of running and as you turn to look at where they are coming from, you register that they are on the platform above you - 

“Incoming!” 

And Scott, instead of walking around and going down the elevator or the ladders like a sensible person, instead  _ leaps _ over the railing, landing in a roll before bouncing back up on his heels like it was no big deal. He even did it with the helmet on. Huh. All the better to keep his head in one piece. 

He grins, and you can see it clearly through the glass of his helmet. “I’m not late, right?” 

You let out a huff of air in amusement, walking over to tap his shoulder with your closed fist. “No, you’re on time. But I’d rather you be late than do that again. Scared the shit out of me.” 

Scott chuckles and returns the tap, though it’s more of a shove with the force behind it, making you rocking to the side just slightly. Then he slots in beside the rest of them, taking up the same parade-rest as the rest of the humans. 

You feel a sudden urge to cross your arms, but keep it down as it wouldn’t look very pathfinder-y. Not that you feel very pathfinder-y in the first place. 

_ I do not seem to contain any information to support this.  _

Great. 

You want to scratch your nose too, just dandy. 

_ I can lessen the irritation near the source.  _

Hm. Thank you SAM, that’d be nice. 

Without a reply, your nose stops itching and you take in a deep breath before looking between the members of your team. 

Five soldiers and one person that tries to fit into shoes that feel wrong. 

“Let’s get this show on the road.” 

* * *

There’s a heated haze over the landscape as you walk down the ramp, flanked by Liam and Vetra with Scott behind and Sara and Cora in front. Biotics ready to handle anything that might try and attack while you’re descending. 

The ground gives and crunches beneath your boots as you finally touch ground at the site of Promise, deserted and quiet. 

You glance around, seeing nothing of note for now. The buildings look empty and there is a distinct blanket of sand everywhere, leaving anything beneath your shin half-buried. From the memories you can recall, you know that there are survivors living here, but they are keeping their heads down. The atmospheric shields are still holding steady with a constant low buzz, like an old TV. 

There’s fortunately no dizziness or headache that follows when you think about the things that are about to happen. Maybe getting the story going will let you go without it. 

_ I will categorize the incidents you are aware of and tell you accordingly for when they are about to commence.  _

Thanks, SAM. 

_ You’re welcome, Pathfinder.  _

* * *

Everything looks worn and torn, though it still stands in one piece since it’s been abandoned. 

SAM speaks over the connection in your suits, “ _ The environment is currently safe for prolonged exposure. However I would not recommend traversing outside of the site without the use of a vehicle, or only in smaller intervals.”  _

“Did people really manage to survive here?” You know the facts from the reports, but seeing the worn-down state of the outpost gives a better look at how harsh it must have been, how the wear and tear must have been on more than just the buildings. 

SAM crackles once again through the speakers. “ _ Eos deployment was incomplete due to environmental hazards and, ultimately, hostile encounters. _ ” 

“Without a Pathfinder, it was brutal,” Vetra remarks, and over the translator, you can hear her subharmonics catch somewhat. “Many lost their loved ones down here. Despite their best efforts, nobody managed to find a safe way to settle.” 

“Well,” you say, testing your jump-jets with a small hop on the spot and then starting to jog over towards the nearest building, “the scans we picked up from here showed similarities to the instabilities on Habitat 7, so there should be a tower or something similar here.” 

“ _ Traversing the landscape with your current equipment would provide fatal. _ ”

“We also have to pinpoint the source of the signal.” 

“ _ Indeed. _ ” 

Cora falls back to keep pace with you, attention outward and on your surroundings even as she speaks. “With the information from the Nexus, there should still be a Nomad stored nearby. Its storage container should only be accessible when interacting with a Pathfinder and the correct code.” 

“ _ Affirmative. _ ” 

“Scanners first, Nomad second,” you say, wanting to run a hand through your hair, but unable to due to the helmet secured over your head. 

Scott then decides to chime in, “With a basic settlement, there should be far-range scanners for any changes in the weather or simply for measuring the radiation in the atmosphere.” When you turn to look at him, he shrugs. “Dad wanted a tech guy, I’m your tech guy. And I read the reports.” 

You smile, though you don’t know if it can be seen through your helmet. “And where do you think they would put the console to activate the scanners at, my brother and tech guy?” 

Scott makes a show of placing a hand on the plate of his helmet, roughly where his chin would be, in a speculative posture. “I have no idea.” 

That barks a laugh from Sara, Liam, and Vetra who had been listening in on the conversation, all three quick to straighten up and turn their attention back to their surroundings. 

“Great.” You reach the steps leading up to the door leading into the nearest building, pulling out your omni tool to interact with it, though nothing happens. 

And nothing happens for a good few seconds. 

“SAM?” 

“ _ Pathfinder. _ ” 

“Do I need a code for this?” 

“ _ Affirmative. _ ”

“Lovely. Could you maybe mention it next time before I stand like an idiot in front of a closed door?” 

“ _ Acknowledged. _ ” 

You forgot about the codes. Time to look for them. You ignore the giggles from Sara and turn away to look at the site again. Nothing of note really stands out, but there are only three or four other buildings nearby, so the search shouldn’t take too long. 

Fortunately.

You hear a choked laugh from Scott, and when you turn back to the others, the twins are both leaning on one another to avoid toppling over as they try and hold back their laughter. No one else seems as amused, but they are kind of making a point of not looking at you directly right now. 

You shrug, “Let’s split up to search for the codes, Cora, you take lead on the secondary team and check out the buildings nearest the Tempest while we go look at the ones furthest.” 

“Understood.” Cora says, holstering her gun to wave the twins along, both following without a fuss. 

* * *

You’ve just made your way inside the only open building when you hear a whoop and the impact of something thunking onto metal. This proves to be Sara, landing on top of the Tempest, as it is accompanied by a disgruntled Kallo asking Sara not to walk around on top of the ship through the external speakers. 

You sigh, ducking beneath the doorway where a part of it seems half-stuck with rust or sand having worked its way into the mechanics. Lucky for you, unlucky for whoever suffered from the damages.

It’s a dull sort of darkness inside, the windows shuttered to prevent the harsh sunlight from slipping in with the occasional piece of operable machinery still chugging away and casting a slight glow over the rooms leading inward. 

Shaking off the dust that rains from the doorway as you walk inside, you turn on the light on your suit to shine inside. It is truly abandoned, and you are grateful and not that there are no corpses lying about, knowing the carnage was spread out to other kett camps nearby instead. For now, you don’t have to face it. 

Inside the building however, you do spot a few datapads strewn around. One of them must have the correct code. You gesture for Liam and Vetra to spread out to search. “Let’s have a look.” 

You find several empty datapads, SAM guiding you with how to interact and check them in your head as the ones you pick up seem to have gotten damaged over time or just wiped by someone before being abandoned. 

Vetra sighs beside you, having picked up a datapad picked off the table she’s standing by. You look up at her with a quizzical tilt to your head. “Nothing useful here, just issues with the storms and radiation killing the crops, people dying, lack of resources… what you’d expect from this.” 

You momentarily have the urge to place a hand on her arm, just a gentle gesture of comfort. But you don’t manage to, as Liam perks up from the table. “I think I found them!” 

“Nice,” you say, looking over his shoulder to tap it into your omnitool. “We’re getting somewhere. Anything else useful?” 

Liam sets the datapad down, shaking his head and when you look at Vetra she shrugs, adding, “Nothing for now.” 

“Good, let’s get that scanner up and running,” you say, walking back outside into the harsh sunlight, glad there’s a screen across your helmet so it doesn’t blind you. “Maybe the others found something.” 

You see Scott leaning over the railing of one of the taller buildings, waving at you exit, hands high up and you swear if you could see his face from this distance, he’d be wearing a big grin. With a curious look up at him, you start walking towards the building. 

There are stairs on the other side that you take upwards to the top, finding Cora discussing with somebody on the other side of a screen. The voice speaking sounding tired and impatient as Cora tries to get her point across. 

“We just need to run the scanner once. Then we will be leaving and you can continue doing whatever you want to down here.” 

The communications crackle, the same drawl now discernible that you are close enough. “And I’m telling you, the kett are out scouting today. There’s no way I’ll risk it.” 

“Cora,” you say in lieu of greeting, “What’s up - ” 

You’re interrupted by Scott suddenly grabbing your arms and dragging you over, with Sara appearing at your elbow with an encouraging thumbs up. You don’t feel encouraged, just confused, but let the twins manhandle you over so you’re standing beside Cora. He then stands behind you and announces to the door, “This is the Pathfinder, otherwise known as my awesome younger sibling who deserves your respect, so let us turn on the scanners and triangulate the locations we need to and then we'll turn any kett we see into mush.”

“Turned into mush in the quickest way possible,” Sara tacks on, still on your left side, leaning against your shoulder with biotics flaring about her. Of course she flexes, though the armor hides away the increase in mass. You don’t doubt that she cuts quite a figure, and you know even if you can’t see it, she’s got a broad grin across her face. 

There’s an audible pause over the speakers, before a dry laugh carries through. “Alright, I’ll give you enough power to get the scanners on, nothing more. If you’re really the Pathfinder, taking care of the kett should be no problem. And if you’re not, then it’s not my problem anymore” 

“Thanks,” you say, not knowing what to add, as everything seems to have been solved without your involvement. Well, if you can count your involvement standing around and looking Pathfinder-y. 

It got you the scanners so far. Well, you still have to turn them on and deal with the aftermath, but one thing at a time. 

“Cora?” You call, getting her attention as she turns to face you. “You take care of turning that one on,” you say, pointing towards the one a bit further away. “Find cover quickly in case the kett appears.” 

“Understood,” and she’s off, both twins following behind with their guns out, ready for anything that might appear. 

In the meantime, you also make your way back down and over to where the other generator connected to the scanner is standing, feeling a slight shiver going down your back at the thought of you now  _ willingly _ summoning the kett. 

_ With the increased numbers of the Pathfinder team, there should be a minimal risk of minor or fatal wounds.  _

_ That’s not as reassuring as you think it is _ , you think back at SAM, interacting with the generator through your omni tool. 

_ Acknowledged. May I ask what made the previous statement unable to serve its purpose?  _

You roll your eyes,  _ the whole ‘fatality’ part.  _

_ Understood, Pathfinder. I will make a note of this.  _

The generator turns on, though you need to manually interact with the scanner itself. Liam is quick to spring to it, boosting up on the frame that sits around the scanner. 

“Ours is ready,” you hear Cora say through the comm, turning yours on as Liam flashes you a thumbs-up. 

“So is ours,” you say, shooting one back at Liam and he turns his attention back to the panel on the side. “Go for it.” 

“Got it.” Cora answers, and then there’s a crackle and a low hum that sounds for just a moment before you hear a shout. As you look up, you see a kett ship close in on your location, speed too fast for you to do anything other than seek cover. You’ve been spotted. 

“Get ready for combat!” you yell, moving back and behind a storage crate. Liam is quick to bounce back down, almost sliding in beside you as Vetra hunkers down behind the building, interacting with her omnitool in quick succession as she keeps her eyes on the ship. 

You unholster your sniper rifle from your back, nerves making your grip loose and unreliable. You take a couple deep breaths, trying to steel yourself as you peek back at where the kett are dropping. 

And then there’s a ball of energy crashing into their midst, a shout of disapproval from the kett, and several are sent flying from the biotic barrier that suddenly expands. 

Sara’s work. You can see her bouncing around with her pistol, biotics like a second layer of armor, accompanied by Scott coming in from the other side, a turrent suddenly set up and his shotgun ringing out between the chaos of it all. 

It doesn’t exactly calm you, though it does give you the strength to peek over the side of your storage crate, aiming down the sights- 

Wait, one moment. There’s a sense of confusion as to what to do for a fraction of a second, but then your fingers flick the safety off, the grip just  _ so _ , before your sight settles and you pull the trigger. 

A kett’s head explodes in a shower of blood and gunk, making you momentarily swallow down the bile in your throat before your focus shifts, targeting one a little further away that has yet to really engage with the rest. 

The recoil on your shoulder is uncomfortable, the armor between taking most of it, but you still feel yourself shift a little every time you pull the trigger. You don’t feel a headache coming on, but you do feel like you’re present and not at this moment, unaware of your body while knowing that you are doing what needs to be done.

Vetra charges forward somewhere on your flank, shields enhanced as she shoots at kett not engaged with any of the others. Liam stays beside you, watching for any that might try and sneak up on the two of you and you can’t see where Cora is, though you’re pretty sure she’s in there somewhere. 

The skirmish is short, leaving no survivors on the ketts side and only a couple scuff marks on some of the armors of the others. None had managed to reach your spot, so you and Liam both avoided any damage at all. 

Sara lets out a whoop, a charge bringing her over to your crate-cover and the rest also start making their way over to you. “That was so cool! If these are the bastards that have been terrorizing our civilians, cleaning them out will be a piece of cake!” 

You rise from where you had been crouching, holstering your sniper back into its slot as you look at her, not sure what to say. 

Cora then steps forward, one side of her armor has a splatter of blue-greenish blood. “This isn’t the time to be celebrating, that was just a scouting group. From the reports we heard, once they know we are here, we can expect much larger numbers and heavier firepower.” She speaks in a calm tone of voice, with just a touch of impatience. Somewhat similar to how Alec spoke back on Habitat 7 once Sara got fired up. 

Oh, you think, she fought alongside the twins before, that’s right. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Cora. We won this round and that’s what counts, at least for now,” Sara says in the meantime, leaning on Scott’s shoulder. “Obviously it’s going to get harder going out, but this was so easy that all of us together have nothing to worry about.”

Cora makes a displeased sound, turning on her heel to inspect the bodies, taking scans. 

You sigh, looking over at Liam who had been staying by your side while the fighting was happening, “You doing ok?” 

“Yeah. Just fine Ryder,” Liam says and then shrugs, “Not happy we dragged attention to us the moment we set down, but we needed those scans. Speaking of; did SAM get the data he needed? I’m not sure a second round will be as clean as this.” He places a hand on his neck, craning his head back to stretch out tense muscles. 

“ _ Affirmative. However the structure is indeed outside of site 1’s boundaries. I will upload the specifics to everyone's omni tools for reference. ”  _ SAM responds. 

Vetra then chimes in, a bit more roughened up than the rest of you, her shields still stabilizing. “That means getting the Nomad, fortunately there’s only one unopened crate of the size to keep it stored here.” 

She points towards the first building you tried to enter, and you do see - once you crouch and squint beneath the shape of the Tempest - that there is a large unopened container just placed a bit to the side. 

Liam steps up and gives your shoulder a squeeze for a moment before he passes you, “Let’s get that going, I’ve heard they’re a dream on wheels.” 

That makes Scott also perk up and trot up beside Liam, “Have you seen one?” 

“Nope.” Liam answers, “Heard it’s somewhat similar to a Mako, but with more power and better balance.” 

Scott looks over his shoulder at Sara, seeing that she’s not listening in on the conversation, he leans over to conspiratorially say; “Just don’t let my sister take the wheel. She knows her hovercars, but I think my tailbone is still broken from last time she drove a Mako at a site where I’d visited.” 

Liam laughs, and both men launch into a goodhearted discussion about the cons of using a wheeled drive versus one that flies. 

You kind of let yourself fall back a bit, ending up walking between Vetra and Sara, with Cora following up behind. 

“Oh, Pathfinder,” you hear Gil say suddenly over the comms. “The crate is probably locked, which is why it hasn’t been picked apart by scavengers. You’ll need the codes from a forward station, and I think it won’t hurt if you get some supplies down there so you won’t have to come back to the Tempest every time you have to restock.” 

You open up the comm that he was speaking through, “Sounds good, Gil. Where do I get one?” 

“You don’t have to do much, just give authorization for me to drop one of the ones that are stuck oribiting around Eos. They were deployed when the first sites were set up, but are only able to be deployed for a Pathfinder.” 

You nod. “Authorized.” 

“You got it,” Gil says. 

As you’re nearing the original building you had tried to enter, you see a speck in the sky start to grow, the station settling down a little ways down, and you instinctively raise your hand to brace against the gust of sand even with your helmet on. 

“One forward station, just for you,” Gil follows up with a soft chuckle. “You’ll just need to get the code to your omnitool and there’s plenty of ammunition stored in it.” 

“Thanks, Gil,” you say, stepping up to it and raising your arm to interact. “How many of these are stuck up in orbit?” 

He’s quiet for a moment, and you nod at the others to go and get supplies. They are all efficient at opening up slots in the station outfitted with various forms of ammunition, focused and talking quietly as you wait for Gil’s reply. Vetra hands you a pack, ones filled with shots for your sniper, and you take it with a murmured ‘thank you’ and slot it into your spare ammunition. 

When Gil speaks, his voice is contemplative. “Got SAM in over it and comparing it to the data received from the Nexus, you have five or six more of these, but one of them seem to be damaged so I can’t tell from here if it’s still usable. We also don’t want to fly around in orbit with the scourge sitting around and waiting for us to make one wrong move, so checking it will have to wait.” 

“Thanks, Gil, that’s good to know,” you say. “Can I put them down anywhere?” 

“Pretty much,” Gil answers, “But just be aware that they’re all you got for now, without a settlement.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” 

* * *

The crate is  _ huge _ and you wonder how you missed it before when you went to look at the buildings. You think that you could live quite comfortably inside of it if pressed, and that you don’t want to think about the size of the thing inside of it.

You stand there and stare at it for a moment, just taking in where the console could be, when you see a slight box set to one side of the lock. And lo and behold, there it is. Holding up your omni tool to use the code, you make sure to wave everyone away from the front of the crate, as not to let them get squished.

Once the front is lowered, you peek inside to see an  _ amazing _ piece of technology. 

Untouched by the radiation and wear and tear of time, the Nomad is still rather shiny and seems to be the only thing on this site that is no worse for wear. 

_ Pathfinder, I would advise stepping away from the container as I will interact with the Nomad’s interface to let it exit.  _

_ Got it,  _ you think back. Scooting off to the side with the others, and as the Nomad turns on with a hum and it rolls outside of its container, you hear Liam whistle and Scott let out a cheery laugh, Sara joining in as you notice the twins having their arms slung around one another and almost bouncing with enthusiasm. 

Vetra nods approvingly as your eyes meet hers and you turn your attention back to the Nomad. 

It isn’t quite as bulky as you’d feared, though it does seem to only seat three, maybe, four inside from what you can tell from the design. 

It’s confirmed when you open up the side door on the drivers side, leaping up to look inside and seeing that there are, in fact, enough space for four, with two front seats and a broad seat in the back. A classic car layout, you can work with this. 

But that also means you’ll have to split off into different teams now, to cover more ground and also let yourself get used to not having Cora or the twins around. 

And maybe with Cora, the twins will be a bit less chaotic. Maybe. 

You rest your head against the upper frame of the door for a moment, thinking, finding no other alternatives as SAM also aren’t interjecting in your line of thought. 

Blinking as you find your eyes blur for a moment, you turn away and jump down from the Nomads door. Facing the others you find your voice. 

“We’ll be splitting up here.” you say, finding your sight returning to normal as you speak, you clasp put a hand on the side of the Nomad, part balance and part making your point. “I’ll be taking Liam and Vetra with me to the alien structure, Cora will be looking through Promise and see what still works and might still be salvageable and report back to Kesh about it.” 

Everyone is still, keeping their attention on you, and you keep going, “We will be keeping contact, with SAM acting as intermediary in case of us ending up facing any kett.” 

In response, you get a firm; “Understood,” from everyone.

Looking at Cora, you nod, “I’ll leave this to you, best of luck.” 

She tilts her head at you, “You as well Ryder.” 

Once you’re leaping into the Nomad, she and the twins are all spreading out to investigate the site and its with nerves making your hands shaky, that you set SAM up to take care of the more intricate controls and just focus on how a normal car is  _ supposed  _ to work. 

Time to take this out for a ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obligatory reminder that any complainers will be directed to our in-house security, snowsheba, and forced to recite the history of the complainer's current country of habitation before being tomato'd and kicked out of the theater. your comedic act will not be compensated.
> 
> This is a work of passion, it will cost 100$ if one of you fucks try and bug me again.

**Author's Note:**

> Man it's good to finally get this going and I hope you guys will want to keep seeing where the story will be going! 
> 
> Feedback or just hearing your thoughts means the world to keep my creative drive running, so leave a comment!


End file.
